


Dragons into Dreams

by Toastie_Pan



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medical, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Child Neglect, Coma, First Meetings, Gen, Horror, M/M, Made up computer/medical jargon, Non-explicit implied non-con, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Past Child Abuse, People were bad but it's up to interpretation, Psychological Trauma, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2020-05-14 11:01:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 23,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19271941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toastie_Pan/pseuds/Toastie_Pan
Summary: Following an accident Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum is in a coma. Thanks to new Medical technology, he could recover quickly thanks to dreamscapes. However all possible helpers have been duds, so Dr Ignis Scientia takes the advice of his co-worker and tries something new with a new patient that just came in and hopes he hasn't gotten this completely wrong.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay quick idea I ended up getting and yes I am kinda getting this from the old horror movie 'The Cell' where a doctor can enter another's psyche to treat the psychological traumas of patients.  
> So here it is!  
> The dreamscapes tech is a normal thing in this set-up and Ignis is a runner of it. Since him and Gladio work the monitors and run the programs they themselves are unable to dive and it is usually up to psychiatrists to go in and help. By improving the mental state of the patient, the bodily healing process is accelerated and the technology aids the patient in waking from the coma.  
> Too bad for Noctis that he's the Prince of the country and no one seems to care that he just wants to go home and not talk about what its like to live a lavish life.  
> Title is from The Rasmus track: Dragons into Dreams  
> 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following an accident Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum is in a coma. Thanks to new Medical technology, he could recover quickly thanks to dreamscapes. However all possible helpers have been duds, so Dr Ignis Scientia takes the advice of his co-worker and tries something new with a new patient that just came in and hopes he hasn't gotten this completely wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes:  
> Okay quick idea I ended up getting and yes I am kinda getting this from the old horror movie 'The Cell' where a doctor can enter another's psyche to treat the psychological traumas of patients.  
> So here it is!  
> The dreamscapes tech is a normal thing in this set-up and Ignis is a runner of it. Since him and Gladio work the monitors and run the programs they themselves are unable to dive and it is usually up to psychiatrists to go in and help. By improving the mental state of the patient, the bodily healing process is accelerated and the technology aids the patient in waking from the coma.  
> Too bad for Noctis that he's the Prince of the country and no one seems to care that he just wants to go home and not talk about what its like to live a lavish life.  
> Title is from The Rasmus track: Dragons into Dreams  
> (See the end of the work for more notes.)

Noctis pressed the button hidden in the flesh between his thumb and first finger, the light turning red before the world he had been just in slipped beneath him in a rush, returning him to the blue crystalline space he was now oh too familiar with.  


Looking around the emptiness with a sigh, he sat down wrapping his arms around his legs, ducking his head down and trying not to let it get to him that this had been the fifth; the _fifth_ damn person they had sent to him to try and make him better.  


‘Try and send someone who gives a damn next time!’ he thought bitterly, clutching harder at his arms, trying to stave of the tears that were threatening to fall.  


The silence held fast around him, nothing to see and nowhere to go. Noctis’ chest constricted painfully.  


_I just want to go home._  


  


Leaning back from the console with a sigh and an impending headache, Dr. Ignis Scientia grabbed his canned coffee and took a deep gulp. _Damn._ He’d been sure, so sure this one would work. The woman was exceptional in her field of psychoanalysis and rehabilitation and according to her resume, had worked with teenagers before who had suffered trauma, but apparently he had not interviewed deeply enough for as soon as they had linked and she had realised who she was talking to, all of her so called ‘experience’ had gone out of the window and she had immediately tried to steer the conversation about the patient’s Father and his home-life.  


As expected, the patient didn’t take well to that and terminated the link without saying a word.  


‘Dr. Scientia, was there a problem with the link?’ came her static voice from over the intercom. He sighed, ‘yeah, you.’ He thought ruefully before pressing the button before him.  


‘No problem here. The link was deactivated by the patient. I’m afraid that’s not a match, please leave your coat on the hook on the way out.’  


‘Eh? What’d I do-‘  


He turned off the intercom with a flick of a switch.  


‘Didn’t even say hello you dumb bint.’ He muttered to himself, taking another swig of his drink, regretting how it was already empty. He threw it into the recycling before being startled by a knock at the door. Looking quickly at the monitor he saw the woman was leaving the room and reasoned if it wasn’t her…  


‘Come in.’  


‘Hey, Iggy. How’s it going?’ came the gruff voice of his co-worker, Gladiolus who shuffled in with a clipboard and to Ignis’ supreme gratitude, a fresh can of Ebony.  


Ignis sighed looking to the monitor, Gladiolus taking the cue and stepping forward, watching as the woman left. He whistled, looking at his watch. 10 past 10 at night.  


‘Thought their appointment started at 10?’ he questioned, pulling a chair closer and taking a seat. Ignis cracked open the can and took another drink, this one blessedly cool against the heat of the room.  


‘It did. As soon as she realised who he was all her so called damn professionalism went out of the window like so much dishwater. Poor boy.’  


‘How many is that now? Four?’ he asked.  


‘Five, if we’re counting the first disaster.’ Ignis stretched his arms over his head.  


‘Oh the asshole.’  


‘The asshole.’ Ignis confirmed, looking back at the monitors as he recalled the first 'professional' they had gotten in, only to find out the slimy bastard had been an investigative reporter undercover. What sort of sick fuck does such a thing to a boy in a coma? ‘Guess I’ll have to start looking up resumes again.’  


Gladiolus scratched at his beard and Ignis felt that headache pulse again. He knew his coworker’s tells by now.  


‘What are you thinking Gladio? Recall it has been a very long day.’ Ignis warned.  


Gladiolus smirked, caught out, but he recovered quickly.  


‘Okay. We’ve tried all different people up against this kid to no avail soooo I got an idea. You know you figured out the cross linking?’  


Ignis frowned. Gladiolus was referring to the system he had set up and gained approval of only a few months ago, where it was possible to send non-conscious minds through the Dreamscape. The work was experimental, but stable, if Gladiolus was getting at what Ignis thought he was…  


‘What about it?’ he asked, carefully.  


Gladiolus lifted the clipboard in his hand.  


‘New patient came in.’ he said seriously, passing the document over. ‘Coma following a domestic accident. Head trauma, but his scans have come back within parameters.’  


Ignis flipped through the papers quickly, scanning the information, eyes widening at the realisation of what Gladiolus was suggesting. The dive is usually done with a conscious person to the one in a coma, as the conscious party was then able to be briefed on the dive and relay the appropriate information to the patient. But since the patient has been through this so many times already he would be in a position to explain. They could actually send another patient through the dive.  


‘If sending professionals in hasn’t worked Iggy,’ Gladiolus pressed, pulling Ignis out of his thoughts, ‘then maybe what the kid needs isn’t a doctor. What if he just needs a friend?’  


Looking back up at the monitor which showed the wired up boy of 17 years in the hospital bed he’d been trapped in for the past 3 months Ignis felt a flicker of hope for their future monarch. Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum CXIV might just have a chance after all.  


‘How soon can he be processed?’ Ignis asked, returning the clipboard to a now smiling Gladiolus.  


‘As soon as you’re ready.’  


‘Bring him in.’  


Two hours later the other patient had been processed and hooked up, his bed next to the Prince’s and appropriate systems added the room. From inside the monitor room, Ignis looked at his new UIs showing the medical scans of now both patients, not just the one. Looking over at Gladiolus, who was looking seriously at the scans, Ignis took a deep breath before lifting the catch on the button on the panel in front of him.  


‘Best of luck, to both of you.’ He whispered, before pressing down and activating the dive.  


  


Back in the room, Noctis looked up suddenly, his world was shifting again as the button on his hand flashed green. Frowning at it confused, Noctis almost didn’t want to press it. Time was weird when he wasn’t awake, but he was certain not a lot of time had passed and he _definitely_ wasn’t interested in talking to that damn woman again. He was about to ignore it, but the thought of being stuck, alone won out against it.  


Even if it was the woman again, at least he could cuss her out to kill some time. So taking a deep breath, Noctis stood up, pressing between his thumb and first finger and feeling the world drop beneath him.  


Each place he ends up in is different, as when he ‘dives’ as was explained to him by the others, he is taken to a place inside either his, or the other person’s mind. It’s usually a field, or a beach or something like that so it’s somewhere neutral, a fictional 'middle-ground' usually built by the machine or the conscious person. So imagine Noctis’ surprise when he finds himself standing suddenly in an eerily empty Insomnian park.  


Longing smashes through Noctis as he sees the Citadel rise majestically over the tops of the building that line the park. He’s so _close_ , he could just cross past the lake, cross the street, run down the thoroughfare and he’d be there. He’d be _home_.  


Part of him feels like he should question why whoever does this sort of thing has sent him here, but Noctis can’t be bothered with questioning right now and his feet move to do exactly what he’d just thought when a quiet voice behind him startles him into turning.  


‘Pr-Prince Noctis?’  


Whirling round, Noctis’ eyes widen at the kid who’s suddenly behind him, wearing threadbare pajamas with pale skin, freckles and bright blond hair and looking downright terrified.  


‘Who wants to know?’ Noctis answers, warily, fearing another typical response. Though that wasn’t what he got.  


‘My na-name’s,’ the kid falters, arms wrapping around his chest and clutching tightly, ‘my name’s Pr-Prompto…where…where am I?’  


Noctis looks around the area, before looking back at the now visibly shaking person before him, at Prompto, as the pieces start to fall in place.  


Those mad bastards, Noctis thought vehemently, what the fuck have they done now?!


	2. Paradise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I made a deal with the Devil, and now I'm deep into trouble...this is my Paradise_

Ignis looked up at the screen from where he had been scribbling down data in his own personal notebook with a sudden frown. The waved lines that indicated the patient’s mind took a sudden spike. His eyes dated to the new patient’s and he sharply inhaled. They were incredibly erratic, the peak of the wave bouncing up and down, close together. Sliding over to another console, Ignis typed up the program, the screen revealing an imprint of the dreamscape, like a tv not quite tuned correctly, it revealed a grainy, green and black, heavily pixelated picture of what looked like…mountains? But the shape was funny…  


‘Huh, did you build that?’  


Startled slightly, Ignis glanced over at Gladiolus, still sat next to him, eyes fixed on the screen. Ignis shook his head.  


‘No the program doesn’t have anything complicated like that, the landscapes are as simple as can be to reduce the possibility of the mind rejecting it. It doesn’t have mountains…or whatever this is.’  


‘Mountains?’ Gladiolus sceptically murmured, ‘Looks like buildings to me…’  


‘Hmm…’ Ignis looked at the screen once more, bouncing back at the still spiking waves of the new boy…’Prompto’…that was his name, even noticing the wider waves from Noctis. Not panicked per say…but something was happening.  


‘Goodness, I am questioning the wisdom of this…’ he muttered.  


‘Give it time, Iggy.’ Gladiolus huffed, wheeling back to his own monitors. ‘They’ll balance it out. The kid’s never done this after all. Believe in the Princess to do right by him.’  


Ignis sighed, past midnight and low on caffeine he felt ill-prepared for this situation. It was unprecedented and no he thought on it, he was certain it was a touch ethically ambiguous.  


Was he holding to his oath to do no harm?  


The medical field was truly the wrong field in which to declare things were done with the best intentions, where the ends justify the means. Sighing once more, Ignis forced himself to sit back, watching the screens as heart rates spikes and waves move erratically.  


‘This had best be growing pains, Gladiolus…for both our sakes.’  


  


^.^......................................................................................................................…….^.^  


  


Noctis looked around again, dealing with the struggle of being exactly where he wanted to be but knowing that he wasn’t. The grass and trees around him rustled carefully with a slight breeze and the clouds overhead were white and cottony as they drifted past the golden mist of the Wall.  


The shuffling of Prompto brought him back to the moment, and he turned his back on the glistening of the Citadel in the low sunshine to once again appraise the shivering, thin boy before him. Looks like the tech built your ‘image’ on how you were at the time of the incident as Prompto was tugging at the hem of his clearly too small pajamas, while Noctis was in his shirt and slacks as he had been when the car-  


With a jolt Noctis realised he’d been asked a question, damn they were off to a great start.  


But how to explain something as complicated as Dive tech to someone who didn’t know about it? Heck he only knew a bit of it since the odd few people who talked to him were kind enough to give a rudimentary explanation, before they saw his eyes and hair and lost it.  


His heart twisted at the memories and he looked up once more at Prompto, clearly getting more and more worried the longer he went without an answer.  


‘Erm…Y-Your Highness? The…I was at home and now…how am I in the park?’  


The stutters were starting to grate on his nerves, the kid a twitchy mess that was pissing him off. Best give him an answer so he can be on his way. Never been able to choose where they put him and now he’s got what? A fucking roommate? Perfect.  


‘Dive tech.’ Noctis answered calmly, Prompto’s eyes widening at the statement, ‘you know anything about it?’  


‘I’ve heard...bits. Managed to once catch an article in a photography magazine!’ Prompto suddenly perked up, ‘they were doing specials on landscapes and how the creator managed to use landscaping photography techniques to build the algorithm, guiding the mind to…’  


‘Yeah, jeez that. You’re in it. Somewhere you got fucked up like I did and I guess this is their mad experiment to help you out.’  


Prompto went paler, freckles standing out as a shaky hand went to his hair. Pulling back Prompto studied it as though expecting to see something there. But there was nothing, just his hand.  


Astrals, Noctis did not have time for this. Turning, he headed off towards the Citadel. If he could make it there, maybe he’d find a way out of this mess.  


‘H-heeey Highness, where are you going?’  


Noctis huffed. The boy was a scatterbrain as well as an idiot. Just his luck.  


‘Where else? I’m going home. Maybe you should too.’ He called from over his shoulder.  


‘Eh?’  


Noctis took it as a victory as the footsteps that had followed him faltered; then stopped. Smug face falling away to seriousness as he increased his strides towards the Citadel.  


Passing through the park and heading across the road, Noctis tried not to focus on how quiet everything was. This Insomnia was truly different than the one he knew but even if it was he couldn't be lax. If he were to return to the Citadel he must return a Prince, not a boy lest his retainers be given any reason to slap his hands or whisper of his incompetence to his uncaring Father.  


He felt a pain in his back as he went and it pulled across his legs. The closer he got to the Citadel, the closer those feelings got. A sharp pull that squashed down his shoulders, a crank of cogs as his chest was pushed out, his back straighter, but it was the string like a spider’s web that floated in front of his eyes that caused Noctis’ heart to skyrocket as he tried to pause and found he couldn't.  


‘Wha-?’  


The string struck round Noctis’ neck pulling tight and up, forcing his head up, the corner of his eyes spotting the leather straps he hadn’t seen before tightening around his arms, the creak of rope behind him as the contraption pulled his back straight and chin up, his arms pulled behind him. Noctis tried to scream but with wide-eyes he realised he had no control, he tried to move his fingers but he felt needles push slowly through the flesh, twisting his hands to clasp behind him.  


He saw the whisps of web multiply, attaching to his face, pushing and pulling at his face; hooding his eyes and slacking his brow, an imperious twist of his eyebrows as metal twisted through his legs, correcting his stride as he walked down the thoroughfare to the main gate.  


Towards the Citadel he moved, the perfect posture of the aloof Crown Prince of Insomnia, resplendent to all who would look upon him.  


  


In his mind he screamed.  


  


^.^....................................................................................................................................................………..^.^  


  


Ignis responded to an alarmed beep on his monitor as the Prince’s heart-rate skyrocketed.  


‘Astrals….’  


Moving across once more to the dreamscape monitor he was confused once more trying to parse the images he was seeing. It looked the way a pile of cutlery would look in a drawer, not a landscape like he thought he’d built.  


‘Something’s wrong…Gladio?’  


‘I-I dunno…’ he replied eyes fixed on his own monitors which showed the other boy…Prompto’s views, nothing was truly coherent, his brain waves were almost non-existent, quiet. Whereas the Prince’s were erratic and violent.  


‘I fear we miscalculated the stability of the program Gladio…I think His Highness is in danger…’  


Gladiolus looked over to his coworker, fear sliding down his spine at the despair he saw in his eyes.  


  


In the Citadel, The Prince of Lucis walked up the great stairs before where the Throne sat, whispers around him filling his mind. If he made it to the throne he would be fine, the throne was where he needed to be, once he was there he could rule. All would look to him, he would control this world, his own world, his own Kingdom; all who look down upon him shall shake in fear at his splendour, all shall bend to his will.  


The screaming was quiet in his mind as he walked, silent the closer he got, he didn’t even know why he had fought in the first place, these contraptions kept him upright, the metal held him tight in an embrace he’d not known when he was small but now knows as he faces the quiet marble chair.  


Turning towards the shadowed faces of his council, the walls fall blood red in silken fold, swishing across towards him. The cape stabbed viciously into his shoulders, the weight crushing, but the metal keeps him tall, the cogs move him cleanly.  


Spider’s web curls in his hair as his crown is placed and Noctis sit down upon his Throne.  


In the hospital room so far away Ignis and Gladiolus look on in horror as the program shorts, stuttering to a stop. In Insomnia a young boy wanders lost before a broken cliff edge, the other side non-existent in a haze of static, realising that his home doesn’t exist in this world he woke up in.  


And in the Citadel a new King sits, in his new Kingdom, his new home.  


His Paradise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick notes folks:
> 
> 1\. The dreamscape tech was built simple. Going into another's mind and having the bust up mind create a landscape is a bad way of doing things so certain neutral landscapes were built to give the mind somewhere to go. But with two patients entering the dive and not one asleep/one conscious the program is having...glitches.
> 
> 2\. This is gonna be a bit of a concept fic based around the album Dark Matters by the band The Rasmus. If you want more context of the chapter then give the songs a listen, the title of the song is the title of the chapter. T
> 
> 3\. Things will be much more fast-paced here than my fic Things the make, Things the break so instead of my usual style of things happening organically over time, this will be a too the point thing. I may miss things.
> 
> 4\. Noctis might be a bit OOC for a lot of this. In this AU he didn't have Ignis at his side, or Gladiolus as his trainer and brother. He was alone in a world of adults and he was not treated well.


	3. Something in the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Something in the Dark is on its way, the beating of my heart is not the same, Something in the dark calls out my name...it's tearing me apart..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no self-control *sips whisky*

Prompto stood huddled on the edge of the cliff that yawned before him, crumbling into static not unlike what you see when the tv isn’t turned on right.  


He honestly didn’t know what to do. He was in Insomnia, on his own in his damn pyjamas and despite the fear that laced through his chest at the idea of going home, the idea of having nowhere to go struck him harder. Insomnia was not a place for a teenage boy in very little clothing to go wandering around alone at night.  


‘Okay, plan time Prompto.’ He muttered to himself, turning away from the chasm and back towards the centre of Insomnia.  


The streets were eerily quiet, the slight wind he had felt in the park, still here in the streets. Wrapping his arms around himself once more Prompto moved forward on bare feet, but his eyes caught movement and he span towards it.  


Nothing. The streets were empty.  


Feeling shaky, Prompto continued moving away from the silent static at his back, mind racing over where on Eos he could go…  


_There!_   


Spinning round once more Prompto’s eyes darted around the shop windows across the road from him. Movement. He’d seen it. He’d definitely seen it that time!  


  


_Clack._   


  


Heart stuttering, the sound clicked behind him, by the glass he had at his back.  


He didn’t want to turn.  


He didn’t want to _move_.  


Move, Prompto!  


  


_Clack._   


  


His legs shook beneath him, his heart thudding loudly in his chest, gulping he shuddered, turning slowly, his eyes seeing only empty street.  


‘Ah-hhhah!’  


He screamed out as he looked through the glass. But then clutched his chest with an unbelieving sigh at the mannequin in the window that had scared the crap out of him.  


‘Nice Prompto, wheyda go bud…’ he chuckled to himself. Typical, all he’s doing is freaking himself out.  


Right. He thought, the only other person here by the looks of things is Prince Noctis and he’s at the Citadel.  


Prompto sighed heavily as he carried on forward. That was the worst reunion he’d ever fathomed in his time dreaming of ever meeting the Prince again. First time he met him he’d been overweight and scared, tripping over himself and making himself out as the biggest idiot ever. This time he was underweight in tattered clothes, stuttering over his words and then rambling about a photography magazine.  


The Prince of Lucis clearly had more important things to worr-  


  


_Clack_   


  


He stopped. Eyes wide. Adrenaline zooming through his body, firing his nerves to shaking.  


‘W-what the…’  


Turning quickly to the sound Prompto saw once more an empty street, but …  


‘What the fuck..’ he whimpered to himself, seeing the same mannequin that had been in the window now peeking from behind a advertising sign. He’d nearly missed it amongst everything else on the street.  


Now fully done, Prompto shuffled back a few steps, breathing erratic.  


‘This is so not cool, what the fuck.’  


The stillness around him was threatening; a held breath rather than a still lake and Prompto really really didn’t want to be here anymore. Shuffling back he carefully turned, keeping his eyes on the mannequin as long as he could before moving forward once more towards the Citadel.  


Worries be damned he needed to be around someone right now.  


He was sick of being alone…  


  


_Clack._   


Resolutely, Prompto didn’t look back, but kept moving, pace picking up.  


  


_Clack._   


  


Astrals what the fu-  


A blaring sound shattered around him bringing him to his knees as the world shook, it sounded akin to the sirens that used to blast through the night when the Empire’s ships would bombard the wall. Clamping his hands over his ears Prompto screamed, the sound ripping through his skull. Turning he shouted, scooting back as quickly as he could. The mannequin now bent down, arm outstretched towards him, still now he was seen.  


The sound stopped, the world stopped shaking and Prompto’s ears rang in the aftermath, tears running down his face.  


‘Wh-what the hell?’  


  


_Prompto…_   


  


Prompto blinked. Had he heard that?  


A whisper of a voice, of his name, but where? How?  


‘Announcement to Insomnia! Announcement from the Citadel!’  


Prompto looked up at the speakers dotted around the street, the cheery woman’s voice echoing between the buildings, with a gasp Prompto turned back towards the mannequin, only to see it gone.  


‘Wha-?’  


‘A time of celebration is at hand!’  


Oh Prompto did not like the sound of _that_

…  


‘The King is crowned! The coronation begins! Celebrate and come forth! The Era of King Noctis begins!’  


Prompto’s eyes went wide. Noctis? On the Throne? But what about King Regis?  


  


_..Prompto?_   


  


Again, that whisper? Someone was calling to him?  


Standing up, Prompto’s eyes swept the streets only seeing the wind picking up dust from the ground, no…  


Prompto gulped audibly. It was shadow, actual shadows were whipping up from the ground, curling around the empty cars and lampposts like some sort of sentient mist.  


‘Shit.’  


Taking a few hesitant steps, before turning Prompto began running. Down the thoroughfare and towards the front gate, the shadows moulding into figures the closer he got, figures with smiles and teeth that made his skin crawl with unease. Breathing heavily Prompto raced up the stairs.  


‘Highness!’ he shouted into the cavernous lobby, ‘Highness are you he-? UMPF’  


Face met marble as he was slammed into from behind, a cackle behind his ear making him shake.  


‘A subject for the King’ it slurred, it’s voice like bubbling oil close a slick by his ear, ‘to the King he goes, to the King!’  


The sentiment was tittered around Prompto, various shadows shifting towards him, arms grabbing him the way he remembered from the figh-  


Prompto blinked, his arms unable to grasp his head as they were ripped behind him as he was hurled up onto his feet.  


‘Such a subject will please the King.’ It slurred, shadowed hands that felt like ice and wind, lifting his shirt, grasping at the skin beneath. Prompto shuddered.  


Ropes wrapped around his chest and neck, pulling tight as he was pushed towards the elevators, the shadows chattering in the background.  


The elevator’s doors opened and he was pushed inside, stumbling into the wall he turned but the doors slammed shut and he was alone once more.  


Shifting quickly he tried to loosen the ropes. This wasn’t right, these shadows, these…these creatures. The binds were tight around his arms and neck, his breath pulled sharply as the doors opened once more.  


‘Yeah that’s not happenin bud-AH!’  


The elevator wall slammed forward, expelling Prompto into the corridor with force, hitting the wall sharply, making his head ring.  


  


_You damn brat, get the fuck out my house!_   


The voice ripped through him, images of an angry red face and smell of alcohol clogged his senses. Fear cloaked him as he remembered.  


It was another night of sitting in his room, staying as quiet as possible so his parents wouldn’t have reason to shout at him, another night where no matter what he did it was all wrong, it all went wrong and his Mom came upstairs, pulling him off the floor, screaming at him, slapping him.  


What he had done wrong he didn’t know…he never fucking _knew._  


The commotion led his Dad upstairs, stinking of the crap alcohol he drank. He shouted at his Mom, she shouted back, things got thrown, people got slapped, Prompto screamed and his head rang from the punch and like so much garbage he went tumbling down the stairs and all flashed red and black.  


Prompto woke up.  


No longer bound but still on the floor he shook with the memory, hand going up to the back of his head.  


That was why he was here.  


He was in a coma.  


Prompto shook his head before laughing without humour. He was surprised they’d called him an ambulance, then again an accident is easier to explain than a corpse.  


  


_Prom…to?_   


Head snapping up, Prompto looked around the dark corridor, eyes darting corner to corner before checking behind himself and back. The place was quiet once more…what on Eos was he hearing?  


The voice was almost familiar…  


Moving forward once more Prompto turned a few corners. According to the announcement, Noctis was now King, so if he needed to find Noct, he needed to find-  


‘The Throne Room.’  


At his utterance, the doors opened, the creak of the hinges echoing around the cavernous room. Prompto took a deep breath and walked in.  


Eyes wide he took in the sight. Shadows sat around the balcony looking down without eyes, the walls behind them wrapped in red silk, chains dangled from the ceiling, creating a macabre decoration that framed the Throne on which Noctis sat, back ramrod straight, arms calm on the rests, his face impassive and cold.  


‘N-noct.’ He whispered disbelieving, just as a sharp impact behind his knee slammed him to the ground.  


‘The King will be addressed correctly.’ That sickly voice bubbled behind him once more before the chains that had been merely decoration before moved of their own accord, snaking around his wrists and neck. Eyebrows drawn in anger Prompto trashed against his captor. This was madness! The dreamscape tech was supposed to be just that; dreamscapes. But here he was being bound and beaten in a fucked up nightmare. When he dreamed it was of open fields and chocobos. A place he could breathe and be free and himself…  


The chains tightened around him, before pulling, stretching his arms above his head and ripping him upwards until he was hovering just above the steps to the Throne. Above him the King sat and Prompto lifted his head to stare at the mad King’s eyes, but that was not what he saw.  


He saw the metal, the cogs; the multitude of strings that held him tight.  


A Puppet King.  


He finally locked eyes with Noctis and beneath the hooded lids he saw eyes that showed confusion. Like Prompto was an enigma to be parsed.  


  


_Prompto!_   


That was when Prompto finally understood the voice he was hearing. Noctis was still in there, beneath the Puppet King and he was terrified of what he had become.  


The chains tightened and so did Prompto’s heart. He’d been beaten and kicked down his whole fucking life. He would not be beaten up by an Astrals Damned Computer Program!  


Noctis was calling for him, and Prompto was going to fucking answer.


	4. Wonderman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _In my mind I always thought I was a different kind; 'Cause back in time I used to think that everyone was blind; They only saw me as a loser; Zero. When I look into the mirror there's a superhero._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updated the tags folks cause things are gonna get dark. I'll absolutely not be explaining anything in explicit detail, but I updated the archive warnings just in case as the subject matter is pretty shitty. 
> 
> Anyways, chapter title from track 3 of the Rasmus album; Dark Matters: Wonderman. 
> 
> I heavily suggest you listen to the tune.
> 
> Also Thank you all so much for your support of this fic :) I know how I wanna finish this now and the parts I wanna get in along the way so updates should hopefully be a little faster. Also I apologise for the weird turn my writing is taking.  
> I hope you enjoy this.

Noctis looked on in mild interest. So another had been found? Another like him, made of flesh, not of shadow like his council?  


Fresh meat. His retainers would be pleased. More to pinch and prod, with slap and rod, with sneers and names, to teach and train into the perfect Prince…  


_Subject_. His new…subject.  


The King’s finger twitched, ever so minutely.  


Inside another screamed.  


Noctis looked on as the boy struggled, wondering how long his strength would last, strung up as he was and why was he fighting in the first place? Couldn’t he see the importance of this?  


_‘You MUST obey. Crying like a baby is weakness, a weakness you must cut out.’_   


Yes. Cut. The weakness of the other must be cut out.  


Inside him another screamed, rattling against his chains.  


It wasn’t important.  


The strength of the King was important.  


_‘Insomnia is safe by the strength of the King but his weakness plagues our people. You will not be weak.’_   


The sound of a stick impacting flesh echoed through Noctis.  


He paid it no heed.  


Behind him the machines whirred and he watched on as the webs strung from the ceiling, excited to have another to play with. They fell like lace on a soft breeze and the boy strung up, shook in a futile attempt to get away from them, but to no avail.  


_Cut_   


Sharp as needles they burrowed beneath, making the boy scream, his wail at their invasion echoing across the chamber, the council of shadows tittering their glee around them. The King looked on impassively.  


Prompto felt the strings burrow under his skin, latching onto muscle, tweaking this way and that. As though wondering how they could manipulate him, twist him to how they wanted. The cute little subject to bow properly, smile happily; say pretty little things that make the people happy…  


The cold horror of what was happening sank in, however didn’t take him, didn’t break him.  


He'd been here before...  


He’d been made to bow, made to smile. Made to dance for the amusement of others. He’d been a punching bag, a shouting wall a piece of flesh for another’s entertainment. In his nightmares he’d been held down, in his dreams he’d been free.  


And here, in the in between…  


He’d be whatever he fucking wanted to be.  


  


_** *Crash* ** _   


  


The King looked on.  


  


_***Crash*** _   


  


Prompto looked up, fire in his eyes/  


  


_***Crash*** _   


  


He pulled against the chains with fists and teeth clenched, the pull shuddering through the chamber.  


  


_**Crash*** _   


  


The windows cracked.  


  


_***Crash*** _   


  


Then Shattered.  


  


Shoulders aching Prompto pulled, each tug shaking the restraints. The web lines pulling blood from his face and arms. He ripped his face into a snarl, snapping each thread.  


  


**_*Crash*_ **   


The chains snapped from their casings. Prompto slamming down onto the stairs with a thud. He pushed himself up in fury, fist grasping every thread that forced its way through and tugging _hard_.  


The strings ripped, pulling blood with them in a spray. The pain sharp like electricity through his body as he forced himself to his feet.  


Only to be slammed back to the ground.  


‘He doesn’t submit. Make him!’ the shadows slurred in his ear. The chains shifting like snakes to claim him once more.  


_ ‘Don’t be a prude, come on! Dance!’ _   


Prompto screamed as he flailed, the chains creeping closer to him.  


_ ‘The Man asked so nicely…’ _   


The chains wrapped around his neck; pulling tight.  


No!  


_ ‘Just behave boy, just stay quiet…’ _   


_**NO!** _   


The King’s hand twitched.  


Prompto’s arm slammed out of the shadow’s grip, trapping the chain to the floor.  


‘No!’ he growled, holding the chain down as the other pulled at his neck. The laughter of other moulding into the laughs of shadows around him.  


‘I’m not what you want me to be,’ he ground out, ‘I’m more than you thought I was…’  


The machines behind the King whirred as he made to stand. They wanted him still upon the Throne as the upstart was taken care of.  


But what King doesn’t act? He thought, fighting against them.  


_‘A King cares not for that beyond his Ken. These childish problems you adhere yourself to are just you being soft. Must I teach you again?’_   


He stopped even as the noise grew louder in his mind, his machines pulling taut against himself.  


  


…

  


Prompto had been broken before, beaten, ripped and torn apart and here _here_ he refused and that right there, that refusal was enough.  


In a small room so far away, two doctors gripped at each other in fear of the program that scanned through reams upon reams of unknown code, the monitor showing snapshot after snapshot, scene after scene of horrors they refused to parse as vitals hammered alarms.  


  


_***Crash*** _   


The King blinked against the webs holding them open. The pain making him wince though the motion showed nothing upon his face.  


The walls cracked around him.  


Prompto thrashed. Before he hadn’t fought. Before he hadn’t bothered. He’d just followed what that they wanted. Just did what he was told.  


‘Good boy’ the shadows had whispered. ‘Just like that.’ They had said.  


‘Go fuck yourselves!’ he screamed, rolling to dislodge the shadow at his back and pulling at the chains, snapping their links, shaking the chamber till the ceiling fell in chunks of marble and stone around him along with the now motionless links of the chain that had bound him.  


Prompto looked up at the Puppet King above him and skittered to him feet before the shadow could grab him again, the floor cracking with each step. The shadows merge at the stairs but Prompto smashes through them, throwing a punch, then a knee, slapping away a hand that grabbed his hair. Screaming profanities as he wrestled past every single one of those Sick smiling shadows and at the top of the stairs turned and slammed his foot into one of their faces sending it rolling down the stairs taking out the others around it.  


Now close to the King he moved once more, seeing the webs and needles determined to stop him, but no.  


They smashed forward only to clang off of a barrier mere centimetres from Prompto’s skin. It shimmered like the Wall had in Insomnia and nothing would breech it.  


‘You’re not touching me again,' Prompto swore, 'and if you don’t mind, I have a friend to save.’  


_Friend?_   


Prompto took a deliberate step forward. The needles recoiling as though worried. The sight filled Prompto with a wicked glee.  


‘Yeah you should be scared. I’m your worst fucking nightmare.’  


Raising his hand, Prompto pushed out the fine mist of the barrier away from himself, encapsulating him in light as he closed his eyes, the shadows moving quickly up the stairs. Taking in all that rage Prompto snapped open his eyes and blasted it across the room with a shout.  


The shadows dispelled, the web snapped and the chains burned away like so much ash. The smashed windows brought in a violent wind that whipped up a maelstrom before Prompto pulled his barrier back to himself, layering it against his skin where it thrummed, warm and comforting.  


Like a hug that he’d never known.  


The wind settled and the setting sun shone.  


Prompto breathed heavily, his body ached with what he’d just done, even though he had no idea how he’d done it. But the air he was breathing felt fresh, not completely…Prompto knew the taste of freedom, he knew it tasted of ice…  


Snapping himself out of his thoughts Prompto stepped towards the broken Puppet King, whose crown had been snapped off and whose legs had buckled as one would expect when a puppets loses its strings.  


The King was dead.  


_All Hail the King._   


Prompto snorted.  


‘What’s a King to a superhero, eh buddy? I mean did you see how I kicked their asses?! I was amazing!’  


The Puppet lay still.  


‘Pfft, come on ye Highness, wakey wakey.’  


Skipping up, feeling on such a high, Prompto grasped the head of the King, eyes quiet, face slack. He looked at it, turning it to and fro.  


‘Hmmm.’ He considered, ‘honestly think you’d rock the beard look bro when you finally become King. Bit weird without it to be honest.’  


Finally Prompto heard the muffled shouting of the voice, confirming what he’d thought.  


‘Yeah, yeah buddy, I gotcha.’  


Squeezing, Prompto took far too much satisfaction at watching the face crack beneath his fingers, _oof gotta watch that sadism there Prompto!_ He laughed to himself.  


Once the cracks were pronounced enough, Prompto wrestled his fingers into the red sinew beneath, fingers becoming slippery but his grip held sure.  


‘One Sleepy Prince, coming right up!’ he laughed, before ripping with all his strength, tearing the Puppet apart in a flood of red and chunks. Coughing, Noctis fell out of the puppet’s casing vomiting up the fluid that had coated his lungs, violently pulling breaths into his chest, crawling at the ground to pull himself free completely.  


‘Mazel Tov. It’s a boy.’ Prompto chuckled.  


‘Oh my god,’ Noctis coughed, ‘Do you ever shut up?’  


‘Nope.’  


Noctis rolled his eyes before struggling to sit up, pointedly staying away from the Throne to do it.  


They were quiet as Noctis got his breath back, the setting sun painting everything gold. Noctis looked out of the shattered window upon the small part of Insomnia that had been formed, an island sat in a static world. It was with a trill of fear that he saw how the shadows lengthened in the city as the sun began to set.  


‘Don’t worry, Highness.’ Prompto said, snapping Noctis out of his thoughts. Noctis turned to look at Prompto, but Prompto was gazing out onto Insomnia, his hair blazing yellow in the sun, the barrier he’d formed glistening like golden mist across his skin, Noctis pointedly looked away before he got caught staring, his gut churning strangely at the sight.  


_What the fuck?_   


‘Worry about what?’ he coughed, spitting out another splatter of red onto the dark marble.  


‘About those shadows,’ Prompto answered, standing up.  


Holding out his hand he waited for Noctis to grab it, but he didn’t. Instead Noctis exhaled heavily before using the column to pull himself up.  


‘The shadows seemed pretty distinct for you,’ Prompto asked pointedly, Noctis refusing to look at him, instead looking out over Insomnia. ‘There were theories floating around that the dreamscape tech would cause physical manifestations of trauma and defeating them would heal a mind.’  


Noctis looked over at that point, facing down the violet-blue stare.  


‘The hell you trying to say?’ he asked, not liking where this conversation seemed to be going.  


‘What happened to you in here?’  


  


  


…  


  


  


Noctis’ breath caught as the wind whipped in again, he shivered as it dried the blood still coating his skin.  


_‘Your behaviour is unbecoming to a Prince, some concessions have been given in accordance to your age, but know this Highness. Tomorrow, you will reveal to Insomnia a perfect Crowned Prince.’_   


Noctis grimaced at the sharp voice, hand twitching and flexing where his magic would form.  


_‘On your birthday, Highness. You must be ready to be King.’_   


Noctis startled at the hand that pressed against his cheek, pulling him out of his memories. It was only then he realised he was breathing hard, his heart hammering in his chest.  


‘I don’t know how to fix this, Noct.’ Prompto whispered, ‘but I know you gotta let it out or it will take you over again.’  


‘Not gonna kick their asses next time then?’ Noctis snorted, pushing the arm away, his cheek tingling from where they had touched.  


‘Of course!’ Prompto smiled, his excitement clear in his bouncing as the last rays of the sun caught his hair, ‘I’m the one the shadows should fear.’  


Noctis blinked at the statement.  


_Is this kid for real-?_   


‘After all,.’ Prompto bounced pointing a thumb at his chest, ‘I’m the Wonderman.’  


Noctis’ eyes went wide, before he snorted, unable to help himself.  


‘You fucking dork.’ he muttered.  


‘Takes one to know one.’  


For the first time in a long time, so long that he couldn’t even properly remember; Noctis smiled.


	5. Wonderman .5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompto discovers some things about himself...and a few too many about the Prince

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOkay this was supposed to be a simple chapter and I know how the part I had planned is going to end but the chapter turned into a monster so I'm doing a point 5 as y'all don't need that attack cause my brain is screamin right now. How dare these boys have feelings and shit urghhhhh. I really do work better with long burn build ups xD
> 
> So here we go! Hope you enjoy ^.^

Dr Scientia hammered furiously across the multiple keyboards, pulling up reams and reams of code that had thrown itself into his program during the last attack. Gladiolus looked on in awe, unable to interfere and instead focused his efforts on filling in the paperwork for each patient’s vitals and current fluctuations.  


When Ignis had been up all those nights clacking away, building his program around his shifts, he had always had this small private smile on his face. Gladiolus had loved seeing it, refusing to interrupt his flow as he had coaxed the Dive tech into life, like a gardener slowly growing a crop knowing that once harvested and cooked, the meal would bring smiles and happiness to those who were served it. It had been a rough time for them both, Gladiolus eventually stepping in to aid in the proof-reading and eventually moving up to bug-fixing and post-fixes.  


But what he was able to do back then; was useless now.  


The Prince and the boy’s vitals had spiked and fluctuated violently in the past ten minutes, but now at least there seemed to be a little bit of a respite, well for them.  


‘Bastard, work damn you!’  


The muttered curse, highlighted quite clearly how much this was getting to Ignis as he backspaced before just pulling the mouse up, highlighting two pages worth of code and deleting it, only to watch it immediately get replaced by whatever code was now taking over his work. Ignis snarled, immediately hammering back onto the keyboard in a clear battle to wrangle the program back into its damn box and stop running wild with a young boy and the damned Crown Prince of their country currently trapped in it.  


‘What even is any of that?’ Gladiolus dared to ask, Ignis flinching at the sudden remembrance of another in the room with him.  


‘Organic code.’ Ignis answered before furiously returning to his wrangling.  


‘That doesn’t exist, Iggy.’  


‘Well it bloody well does now!’ he snarled, ‘The syntax is something I have never come across in my life and it’s using symbols I don’t think any computer’s language has, let alone this program and how they are even being displayed right now on this brick they call a modern computer I have no idea, blast and buggery you whore!’  


Gladiolus flinched as Ignis highlighted another chunk of text and instead of wasting time deleting, just continued furiously typing against the never ending stream of code that continued to fall.  


The dreamscapes was a brilliant idea when Ignis had first produced it, a space for coma patients to sit in peace while the traumas of their bodies were healed by healing the traumas of their mind. The first snag had been when Ignis had attempted to build the program based upon the full mapping of the mind, but that hadn’t worked. Not only is each mind different in how it realises things, but this program had to exist and aid broken and injured minds without stressing the patient. At first they had allowed the mind to build its own world, thinking that how people always extol the virtues of lucid dreaming could be replicated in the program, but that failed as it was too taxing on the mind, let alone an injured one and it also didn’t account for the different structures of people’s dreams. Landscapes constantly shifted and sometimes instead of solid constructs, the mind replicated the program in manifestations of abstract sounds, smells and colours.  


The brain could be quite interesting sometimes.  


So Ignis thought outside the box and came back, excited one day with a photography book filled with the Landscapes of Eos. If the brain can’t build the landscapes then he’d give them landscapes. They set up an eye tracker and followed the points of a landscape that was focused on and like a puzzle, they built it up, piece by piece. Ignis had even gone out with landscape photographers to learn about manipulation of light and how it highlighted or masked a horizon and what constituted foreground detail.  


They’d managed to take these points and realised something incredible, that the mind will fill in blank space based upon the context of certain points.  


With that in mind, they had managed to finish the program by pulling the mind into a neutral space, creating a simple, calming landscape and allow the mind to fill in the pieces that were missing. It reduced rejection in the psyche and finally they had the result they had so desperately been looking for.  


When they finally managed to get approval for first run trails, the landscape itself improved recovery rates and when they introduced therapists, the rate increased.  


Gladiolus and Ignis had gotten very drunk in celebration the night the program had been approved for full release and what had started as just the two of them partnering up for the program became a lot more very quickly.  


Headaches and hangovers aside, the morning after had just been shy smiles and an agreement that it had kinda been inevitable.  


Two Med staff bunking to save on rent suddenly became a rather convenient living situation.  


Gladiolus sighed, looking through the window at the two boys all hooked up to wires and the Dive gear wrapped around their eyes, blinking quiet lights in the dim room. Gladiolus had offered the idea as a last ditch effort to save the Prince. Cross-links were possible but they had clearly overlooked something glaringly obvious in hindsight.  


That two unconscious minds wouldn’t know where to go and get ‘lost’ in the program. They clearly should have found someone, anyone who could go in and brief the Prince on the situation, heck Gladiolus wondered whether or not HE should have done it. Or watched the damn monitors while Ignis went in. But that wasn’t possible really cause if something went wrong only Ignis could do what Ignis was currently doing, though probably with much less swearing and Prompto was already hooked up before Gladiolus even considered the possibility.  


Gladiolus just hoped that the two at the least were lost together.  


A rather coarse word left Ignis mouth at that time, snapping Gladiolus out of his reverie as he returned to the vitals having given up looking at Prompto’s dreamscape, being about as comprehensible as the Prince’s (which is to say not very), and frowning at the list of data pulled up the full UI of the kid’s mindscape.  


‘Huh.’  


The constant tapping faltered from behind him.  


‘What?’ came the sudden voice next to Gladiolus’ head.  


‘Ifrit’s ass Ignis!’ he jumped, clutching his chest as Ignis who was previously at the other side of the room was suddenly leaning over his arm, starting intently at the screen.  


‘What did you find?’ Ignis asked, ignoring Gladiolus’ reaction.  


‘Fuck,’ Gladiolus breathed, looking back to the screen, ‘the kid’s mindscape shifted slightly. We’ve got activity on the edges of the previously dormant areas shut down from the incident.’  


Ignis’ eyes widened at the data, comparing it to Gladiolus’ notes, looking up at the visual dreamscape of incoherent images before sliding his chair quickly back to his own monitors, bringing up the full UI of Noctis’ mindscape before comparing the data against his own written notes.  


‘There is increased activity,’ he gasped, ‘not as much as Prompto’s. But it’s there.’  


‘You saying whatever’s happening, is working?’  


‘I don’t know,’ Ignis sighed, eyes darting back through the still streaming lines of incomprehensible code, ‘but I hope it is.’

  


^.^……..^.^  


 

Prompto turned his arm underneath the changing light, it was so strange. Like a transparent liquid gold had been poured across his body, it moved across his skin matching his movements. When he focused hard, it moved away from his hand as though blowing up a balloon. But when he stopped it sank back, thrumming against his skin.  


_Huh, cool._   


‘So then, Wonderman.’ Noctis started, snapping Prompto’s attention back to the Prince, who was scratching dried blood off his cheek, ‘what do we do now?’  


Prompto shrugged before plopping down in front of him, cross-legged.  


‘I don’t know how this stuff works bud, I’m just playing by ear at the moment.’ Prompto huffed, resting his chin against the palm of his hand, his elbow resting on his knee.  


‘You were pretty confident earlier.’ Noctis pointed out, ‘ _”I won’t let the shadows hurt you!”_ ’ Noctis imitated, ‘like an anime protag or something.’  


Prompto snorted hard before laughing loudly at Noctis’ impression. His light laughter echoing across the chamber. Noctis ignored the twinge in his chest at the sound.  


‘Duuude you gotta get out of the 740’s, jeez what was the last anime you watched?’  


In response Noctis folded his arms across his chest looking out to Insomnia instead of the blond bint laughing at him on the floor. Noctis had only just gotten into the shows that fascinated him as a kid when he saw the trailers on the large screens in Insomnia as he was driven from place to place, having only recently been in his own apartment where he could watch things like that.  


Until he discovered the eyes of the Citadel followed him even there.  


‘D-dude…what haha…hey you mad bro?’ Prompto chuckled, shuffling towards him, ‘ain’t my bad you only know Fist of the North Star.’  


‘I don’t!’ Noctis retorted, ‘I …uum…’  


Eventually Noctis harrumpf-ed before turning back to the crashed open window, then sighed scratching at his cheek again.  


‘You think a mindspace has water bud?’ Prompto asked, tilting his head in question, reminding Noctis of an inquisitive chocobo in a cartoon he’d caught once. Pulling himself out of his thoughts of cute yellow feathers, Noctis shrugged. He’d never had to give a damn about amenities while in the space before and said as much.  


‘Come on bud, gimme some help here.’ Prompto replied, turning his head up to ceiling in exasperation, ‘I don’t know the Citadel; can’t say a pleb like me has been two steps past the park! What room usually has running water and we’ll go from there!’  


Noctis looked at him, incredulous at Prompto’s seemingly never ending enthusiasm, but then again after seeing the battle he’d seen Prompto fight he guessed he had plenty of reason to be on a high right now.  


Unable to match Prompto’s earnest gaze much longer, Noctis just looked away, finally nodding with a sigh.  


Suddenly filled with purpose, Prompto jumped up, pumping his arms in a ‘hell yeah’ before whipping his arm out again for Noctis to grab.  


This time, Noctis grabbed it pulling himself up and pointedly ignored Prompto’s smile at the action.  


‘Why the hells do you keep calling me “bud”?’ Noctis asked, walking towards the stairs.  


‘What? You want me to call you, “highness”?’  


Noctis flinched.  


‘Yeah, didn’t think so.’ Prompto sighed, following Noctis down folding him arms behind his head, ‘okay, sooooo…how would u like me to address you?’  


There was silence for a while as they made their way through the now quiet Throne room and it was only when the doors closed behind them that Noctis muttered.  


‘Just Noct is fine.’  


Prompto grinned behind Noctis’ back before nodding to himself.  


‘Noct it is.’

  


^.^………………..^.^  


  
Noctis led Prompto through the quiet corridors, the gates that had held the path to the Throne Room were now removed, leaving the Citadel open for the two boys to traverse, only the quiet shuffle of their feet breaking the silence.  


Prompto wished he could see the Palace in real life, here it felt oppressive, walls pressing in as though a cage wrought of stone and iron. He’d felt the same oppression before, in his own home of wood and brick, lesser materials but the way the shadows pressed in was the sa-.  


‘Oi.’  


Prompto started at the hand suddenly gripping his shoulder. Looking up he saw Noctis’ worried gaze swept across his features, eventually falling into something a touch softer when he found whatever he was looking for.  


_He looks good like that,_ Prompto thought suddenly, _like his face was always meant to smile_  


Stepping back embarrassed at the thought Prompto dislodged the hand from his shoulder, before breathing dramatically.  


_I’m a budding photographer,_ Prompto nodded to himself, _makes sense I aim for ultimate aesthetic!_  


‘What’s an ultimate aesthetic?’  


_…Eh?!_   


‘EHHH?!’ Prompto exclaimed, recoiling, ‘You reading my thoughts?! You can read my thoughts in here?! You can hear what I just said?! You-you know I-I-…?!?’  


Noctis stared bug-eyed at Prompto whose hands were wrapped around his head in a vision of horror at the mere possibility that his innermost thoughts were on display in this world around them. That Noctis had somehow peered in like some sort of voyeur in his mind.  


Noctis couldn’t help it, couldn’t hold it. All his years of conditioning to not smile without an important reason, to not reveal his emotions on his face unless to endear others to his cause, to not laugh out or chuckle lest he be seen a clown or worse.  


It all came crashing down in an explosive HA! that he immediately slapped his hand over his face for.  


Prompto stared incredulous at the shaking Prince’s shoulders, his face clearly warring with itself over maintaining his seriousness or just laughing. Prompto crossed his arms in a huff.  


‘Dude if you’re going to laugh just laugh! But I know you don’t want your thoughts on display, same as me! Meanie!’  


And then it finally happened, with Noctis clutching at his stomach as the spasms he was holding in turned painful. His eyes watering with the force. It finally happened.  


He laughed.  


Noctis couldn’t believe it, even as the sound of his laughter bounced off the walls of the corridor, he couldn’t believe it. But this idiot was just so unbelievable , how could he not?!  


Prompto stared wide-eyed at the Prince- no Noct before him. Had he ever heard a laugh like it?  


_It’s so pure…_   


Then he slapped his hands on his head again in despair with a groan.  


Eventually Noctis pulled himself together.  


‘You said it out loud, you dork!’ he chuckled. ‘About ultimate aesthetic, you said it out loud!’  


It was as though you could see the world stop around Prompto and the bell sound as he went from _‘no idea’_ to _‘Gets it!’_.  


‘EH?!’ he cried before outwardly deflating, ‘ahh I got worried for nothing…’  


_Worried?_   


What on Eos could Prompto be worried about him hearing abou-  


Oh.  


_Ohhh..._   


Well…that made sense.  


Noctis appraised Prompto once more, taking in his slim lines and that barrier that still swept across his skin. Prompto had been looking straight at him when he’d uttered that line about aesthetics or whatever. Noctis sighed, well, this was a song and dance Noctis had had plenty of practice with. He couldn’t walk into a club without someone wanting to drag him into a dark corner after all. Seems even Prompto wasn’t immune. Well, he could give Prompto, just like all those other faceless people, the only thing they ever wanted out of him.  


_Shame, really. But oh well._   


‘Ah that’s alright Prom,’ Noctis smiled, sauntering up to Prompto, his body slipping into the suave persona he’d built, unheeding of the wisps of shadow that licked at his feet as he tucked one crooked finger under Prompto’s chin, lifting it up slightly, ‘you can always just tell me what you want to do with me. No need to keep it in that head of yours’ He slowly moved his lips right against Prompto’s ear, ‘All of your fantasies could come true…’  


The slap across Noctis’ face was sharp and quick, snapping Noctis out of his usual routine as his eyes were filled with swirling gold, leaving him blinking in confusion as the shadows fell back from his legs.  


_Well, that was a first…_   


‘What the hell was that?’  


Suddenly it was Noctis’ turn to blink confused, mouth opening and closing as he scrambled for words that wouldn’t come. Had he ever been denied?  


‘I should say the same to you!’ Noctis eventually settled on, hand coming up to touch at his cheek where the sting was still prevalent. ‘I thought you…’  


‘You thought wrong,’ Prompto replied, eyes dangerous behind his wall, ‘…whoever the hell you are.’  


Prompto raised his hand, the wall shimmering with his intent, Noctis taking an involuntary step back.  


‘What? Prompto I’m still me!’  


‘No. You’re not. Nice try.’  


‘Pro-‘  


The wall slammed into Noctis, staggering him back even as his arms came up to defend himself. He felt it rip against him as if something was being _pulled._  


And Noctis was suddenly there, bass thrumming through his veins, flashing multi-coloured lights blasting around the room, creating snapshots of writhing bodies, the air heady with sweat, spice, spilled alcohol and sex. The club he’d been frequenting the past month was exactly how he’d left it before as though he’d never left, exactly how Noctis liked it.  


Dressed in a pure black short sleeved shirt and black slacks, he knew he stood out. Sleeves folded up revealing his muscled forearms, the top buttons released to tease an edge of collarbone, he flung his silver lined suit jacket over his shoulder as he made his way to the bar for something short, bright and the most important point, disgustingly alcoholic. It had been a _long_ week.  


He’d had his apartment for the better part of six months now, six months of late nights and non-existent mornings, six months of breathing his first free air of his entire life. Six months of loneliness and drinking his expectations away.  


He was aware of the stares he got and he expertly ignored them as he knocked his drink back, motioning to the barmen to top him off. He was also aware of the girls down the bar as they pushed their friend towards him. When she smiled and flicked her hair, he smoothly finished his drink.  


The best thing about a club he’d found, was that you can’t hear anything without screaming callously into the other person’s ear so he chose not to say anything. Instead, he simply moved the girl’s long hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear, feeling the way she gasped through his fingertips. Guiding the way, they wove into the dancefloor as he had with many before, and just like before he didn’t stop those hands as they worked their way across his body and if she happened to drag him away to a dark secluded corner and drop to her knees, open up his slacks and take his cock in her mouth…  


Well, who the hell was he to stop her?  


‘Highness!’  


A bright torch shone brightly into his eyes, the girl releasing him with a squeak and skittering away in shock before his inebriated brain could catch up. At least he had the wherewithal to do up his slacks…barely.  


‘We go to your apartment to discuss an important development and after tearing the city apart we find you here, engaging in crass acts and inebriated?!’  


The shrill voice of his aide cuts through even the bass of the club, the torch being held by one of the bouncers. Noctis wanted to say something, something smart or preferably insulting to the stern faced old hag a few inches shorter than him, but nothing came. He never could. Even when he outgrew her, the pressure of her stare still crushed him down, bending his shoulders and ducking his head.  


‘Stand up _straight!’_  


Up like a shot, his back tight, stomach in and shoulders set. Without a word she turned and without a word he followed.  


‘Noct? Oi! Noct!’  


Another tap against his face had Noctis’ face twitch, but he hadn’t quite come back.  


Prompto had seen it all. The club, the woman, everything had rushed into his mind when his barrier had hit. Like a bad movie running through his mind he’s witnessed it. All the faceless people, female and male who Noctis had allowed to have him, the countless nights spent drunk and alone in his apartment and through it all, the stern face of an old woman who pulled Noctis into form faster than those cogs and needles had before.  


Prompto had seen the Puppet King, and just like that he’d seen the puppet master.  


And she was a _bitch._  


‘Noct!’  


Noctis’ eyes snapped open from where he had hit the ground, the shadows that had clung to him destroyed. His breath came out in gasps as he wrestled his mind into place, eyes bouncing across marble before resting on a very concerned freckled face.  


With a gasp, Noctis shuffled back a hand out in front to shield himself.  


‘Bud, easy I-I’m not gonna do that again, I thought- you weren’t yourself’ he finished. ‘Though that makes sense now. That was never you, was it?’  


Noctis shook as the realisation set in.  


‘Y-you saw?’  


It was a long second before Prompto met his gaze and even longer before he nodded.  


Noctis’ hand fell as his breath fell out of him.  


Well…  


_Fuck._   


  


^.^……………..^.^  


  


In silence, Noctis led Prompto into the training room lockers. He’d not commented on what he knew Prompto had seen, and Prompto had stayed quiet over the whole thing as they made their way downstairs, content not to comment on what was clearly a seriously fucked up part of Noctis’ life.  


Or was all of it fucked up and that was just one part? Prompto was seriously considering that being true.  


Prompto at least had figured a few things: the shadows were Noctis’ memories; that was clear now. They were the trauma he had and the dreamscape manifested them in that form. The shadow creatures showed that those instances of trauma sought to overtake him.  


And Prompto had the ability to destroy them.  


He looked at his hand once more as they wandered through rows of lockers towards the shadows in the background, eyeing the gold that swirled across his skin.  


He’d gained this when he’d found the strength to fight against his own trauma, his own things that were pulling him down, so was that how this world was creating things?  


_Like in an RPG? When you beat a boss, you get new gear?_   


Clenching his fist Prompto nodded to himself.  


He had the first power-up. Now he just had to help Noct realize his.  


Somehow…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ignis screaming blast and buggery you whore has to be the best thing ive written for him, i cackled xD


	6. Nothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Always put myself right in front of the front row/Spending all my cash on the ones with no halo/spilling gasoline on my 100k Steinway/do it my way_   
>  _Take another sip I'm unleashing the dragon/Spinning in my whip 63 G Wagon/Take another glance in the rearview mirror/So clear now_   
>  _I'm holding on to Nothing_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys ^.^ 
> 
> I'm glad I split the chapter cause omg, but here is finally the chapter to 'Nothing'!  
> This was actually one of the first parts of the story that I thought of (the very first coming up in Silver Night), so I'm excited to finally reach it ^.^  
> I hope you guys enjoy it, let me know! :D 
> 
> Also heed the updated tags folks!

‘Oi, you gonna come in? The showers are working…somehow.’  


Noctis snapped Prompto out of his reverie of stat changes and if he had a menu UI with a flick to his forehead.  


‘Showers, dude you want one?’ he repeated, cocking his head behind him.  


Prompto considered it. He did. Stood there in his too small pyjamas, but at the same time he didn’t want to be naked around another person any time soon and after everything he saw it felt too…too soon to see anything of Noctis.  


Not that he’d look…he meant, that was clearly a bit too much… _seeing_ …already. Best to step back. Give him his space.  


Shaking his head Prompto saw Noctis shrug before heading out, him pulling his shirt over his head and slapping the mess of it onto a bench before turning the corner. Prompto was too deep in thought to see the stripes of scars that littered the Prince’s back.  


Prompto sighed as he heard the water start to run and having nothing else to do he just sat down. Looking around he wondered if he’d ever see them in real life, the lockers, having considered joining the Crownsguard as a possible way to get out of his shitty situation. The Crownsguard boasted that he could live away from home during training (well, boasted is the wrong way to put it, the pamphlet he found at a bus stop pointed it out it the terms and conditions but it might as well have been gold-plated for all Prompto cared when he saw it), so he started training whenever he could; running to work and running back, quietly trying to do squats and sit ups at home without making too much noise (to varying success) but all of it just tired him out too quickly, being unable to correctly balance his diet and exercise. His dream was smaller and smaller in the distance as the months went by and he had been contemplating just leaving and giving it a go. If they accepted him then he was out, if they didn’t…  


He preferred not to think on that. Even though he figured that now it didn’t matter. No Royal army was gonna take a kid recovering from a coma. It just means that after he’s done here, he’ll have to come up with a new plan.  


Whatever it was, he didn’t want to go home.  


  


Back in the showers Noctis thudded his head against the tiled wall, watching as the blood and detritus was washed away by the steaming water.  


He felt like screaming, he felt like crying, like stamping his feet and raging but outwardly, there was nothing. His face was passive as the water ran rivulets across his muscles, washing away the traces of his entrapment as the puppet.  


It was nice to break from a physical manifestation instead of only seeing everything as a mental block. Even though…he didn’t even do it did he? Prompto pulled him out. This ditzy frightened kid had faced the spectres of Noctis’ past and damn, it had been…something. He’d smashed Noctis out with a golden smile on his face.  


Noctis chose not to focus on that for the moment, still burning with embarrassment at how he’d tried to seduce the guy and then for him to see...  


‘To see how much of a slut you are.’ Noctis muttered, under the stream. No point glossing over the truth after all.  


Lifting his head up, Noctis allowed the water the hammer against his face, flattening his naturally wild hair…  


_‘Comb it down, a man who can’t control even his hair if unfit to control a kingdom! People will see it as laziness!’_  


Noctis flinched under the stream; even here her voice reached. Even here in his supposed dreams, standing under the stream of a shower in the training halls, the one place he could attempt to escape her back in the real world, hiding out with his Father’s soldiers, wishing he could join them.  


But she never allowed such a thing. Insomnia stood strong. The Prince didn't need to train constantly in combat. Such was the expectation of peace.  


Beneath his feet, a tendril of shadow caressed the Prince's leg as the memory of _that_ night was forced into Noctis' mind once more.  


  


_‘He has a peculiar manner about him, Majesty. Such a mild mannered boy, I never expected…oh dear’_  


_‘Madam Crewcant, please seat yourself.’_  


_‘Thank you, Majesty, it has been…a very long night.’_  


_She folded herself into the only other chair as though near to a faint, leaving Noctis trying not to completely fall on his ass as he too slowly sobered up._  


_‘Noctis, care to explain this?!’ came his Father’s stern voice, tearing through his alcohol addled mind._  


Noctis twitched beneath the spray. So Many. So many words beneath his tongue, so many lost behind his teeth as once more she spoke for him and no one batted an eye.  


_‘A young boy fraternising with the youth surrounding him Majesty; this is all my fault.’ She despaired. ‘Had I not taken my eyes off of him and guided him well…I’m afraid I left him alone and all of those people just took advantage, the boy is trusting, too trusting of those around him. Wanting to help and aid without realising his position. He has a good heart, but not enough guidance.’ _  
__

_‘It seems I was hasty allowing him his freedom, I had thought he had grown past such things…’_  


Noctis’ hand curled into a fist as the water beat down his back.  


_‘As had I Majesty, but clearly he could benefit from returning to the Citadel, if only for a time, to allow him to understand his responsibilities, to prove himself before his debut before the lords.’  
_

***punch*** his fist went against the tile, shadows coalescing around him, he felt the tile cut into his knuckles as the voices shook through him once more.  


_‘Truly, I agree. I am sure we can arrange it…’_  


No. Noctis cried silently, Dad…don’t listen…don’t let her bring me back!  


_‘His birthday gala is in a week,_ ***punch*** _where all shall see him as the Future King_ **.*punch*** _Wouldn’t it be a clear message if he should announce himself from the Citadel at the ball_ ***punch*** _having seen the underbelly of Insomnia and risen above it?’_ ***PUNCH***  


_‘He’ll be a shining example to Insomnia…’_  


  


Please don’t let her take me!  


  
The shadow wound tighter, ever tighter; eager to pull him back and make him theirs again. Noctis had stood there, silent as always as plans were made for him to move back into the Citadel, shaking, praying for his Dad to just hear him. Just once to look at him and see how loudly he was screaming.  


But he didn’t. His Dad just dismissed him to his room, ready to be revealed to all the nobles, dukes and ladies of position as the future King a few days hence.  


And on the Eve of Noctis’ 20th Birthday, Noctis finally found a way to be free.  


Prompto looked up.  


_W-what?_  


He’d felt it, a shiver rippling through the shimmer across his arms. He looked around the locker in a panic and looking up he saw it. A flicker of shadow, licking its way round the corner to the showers.  


_Oh shit that can’t be good._  


Jumping up, Prompto ran into the showers halting at the sight of Noctis, wreathed in shadows that tugged and pulled, wrapping around his body. Noctis’ head was bowed, his body shivering under the water. Ignoring everything else screaming at him about _danger! Danger!_ Prompto ran forward, hoping to rip Noctis out of the shadows’ grip but when his hand came into contact nothing but screaming filled his head, the pain rippling through his body, dropping him to the floor as he lost agency over his limbs.  


This wasn’t like before. These tendrils were a completely different monster.  


‘Noctis, wake up!’ Prompto called, to no avail, the body before him shook under the weight of the shadows, wrapping as a cloak around him, the crown weaving into his hair… ‘shitshitshitshit.’  


Pulling his fist to his chest, Prompto allowed the wall to coalesce, pushing it out. He’d knocked the shadows out before, right? This means it’ll work right?  


‘Please work.’  


Hand outstretched Prompto slammed the wall into the undulating waves of shadows, but it didn’t disperse them. It struck them and a white light filled Prompto’s vision painfully as he felt the world drop out from under him.  


Prompto opened his eyes, gasping as though he’d been underwater. He was in the passenger’s seat of a car. A nice car. A nice car hurtling down a road in Insomnia. Music blasted from the speakers, the sound thrumming through his body.  


‘Want me to be a Prince huh? Want me to be a King? Well let all the world see! Your perfect fucking PROJECT’ Noctis’ voice spat viciously from his side.  


Startled, Prompto looked to the driving seat at Noctis gripping haphazardly at the wheel of the car and an almost empty bottle of dark alcohol as it swerved its way through Insomnia’s roads, barely dodging cars and trucks as it went. Prompto cried out as the car sliced across a truck, ripping off the wing-mirror with a screech of buckling metal.  


Prompto caught the sight of the road sign as it sped overhead, the road out of Insomnia, Noctis was heading for the bridge.  


‘Noct! Stop the car!’ he screamed.  


But Noctis didn’t flinch, didn’t even recognise his presence, it was like he wasn’t even there…like he wasn’t….  


‘I’m not here.’ Prompto whispered before crying out again as the car drifted around a corner, taking out a parking meter and its tail light before speeding off again with a squeal of rubber. Beside him the Prince whooped, the car turning on the road, the water churning cold beneath them.  


‘This is a memory…just like the last…’ Prompto thought.  


‘Let the whole fucking world see, the perfect fucking royal _brat._ ’ Noctis screamed. ‘Let them come. All in one and one in all! Gasp in awe at your perfect fucking PRINCE’ Noctis took an exaggerated gulp of the bottle he’d been drinking from, finishing it before slinging it out of his window. ‘Smile for the future King, you BITCH!’  


Prompto held on for dear life as he saw the lorries coming up, it was like a bad dream as he heard the horns blare and the lights flash; his stomach twisted in on itself as he felt the engine roar as Noctis slammed down the acceleration, hurtling towards the traffic pouring across the road.  


‘Noct-…’  


‘FREEDOOOOM!’ he screamed.  


The car impacted against a semi coming the other way with a scream, the speed hurtling the vehicle across the road, colliding with the cars heading the other way, clipping the top of the bumper of another, Noctis’ face still split into a sickening grin as his body was ragdolled. Arm snapped upon impact with the gear stick, head spiderwebbing the half open window before smashing into the steering wheel as the horizon flipped. The brake was pushed and the wheels locked, the car suddenly turned over end, bouncing across the asphalt with an unattached Noctis impacting every surface inside the car as he went.  


Then it stopped. The only sound the beeps of his car and the sound of horns as other vehicles stopped in horror. Prompto sat, wide-eyed, unable to do anything, staring at Noctis, slumped in the driver’s seat, blood pouring down his face and his arm at a sickening angle. Prompto jumped at Noctis coughing suddenly, choking on the blood slowly filling his lungs as his face twitched into smile, chuckling to himself once more.  


‘You get…nothing….’ He whispered before looking up through the windshield, his eyes widening at the sight as pain ripped through his back and skull. Before Noctis could even move, before he could shift or even think of a way out the car teetered on the edge of the bridge; and fell.  


‘Dad…’  


The car impacted the freezing water below with all the force of concrete and everything went black.  


Prompto gasped, tears streaming down his face as he awoke on the shower’s tiled floor, cold seeping through his skin as he looked up and saw that the shadows had been pushed back but were curling their way through the steam, clearly not deterred.  


‘It wasn’t an accident…’ Prompto whimpered through his tears, ‘Astrals Noct it wasn’t an accident…’  


Noctis was curled on his side on the floor, shaking violently and Prompto’s heart broke to see him like this. Shifting closer, Prompto raised his hands, hovering inches over Noctis’ pale skin. He didn’t know what to do, he was so out of his depth here. How do you react to seeing something like that?  


‘N-noct?’  


Noctis didn’t react, clearly having just relived it himself. Prompto’s eyes traced the Prince’s back only now seeing the criss-crossed scars that like silver traced down his spine and the muscles that bunched and trembled. At Prompto’s tentative touch, the Prince flinched, turning wide-eyed and frightened his breath erratic.  


‘You…’ he shakily whispered, ‘D-did you?’  


Prompto tried to parse the meaning of Noctis’ quiet words as Noctis’ eyes skittered across Prompto’s face, his face crumpling at seeing the tear tracks running down Prompto’s face. It was then the realisation set in and Prompto could only frown and nod.  


‘Yeah bud…I-I saw.’ Prompto’s breath hitched on the last syllable as he moved slightly closer carefully as though approaching a spooked animal, though he needn’t have worried for as soon as he opened his arms, he ended up with arms full of violently shaking Prince, clinging to his back as though terrified that he’d leave. Prompto wrapped his arms around Noctis, clinging to him just as tightly as Noctis finally allowed himself to cry, sobbing into Prompto’s chest as Prompto shakily whispered unhelpful platitudes of ‘I’m sorry,’ ‘it’s not your fault’ and ‘they’re to blame’…  


_‘I’m not leaving you.’_  


Like ink in water the shadows approached the two boys on the floor. Prompto’s eyes widened as a shiver a fear ran down his spine. He couldn’t fight these things. His power managed to hold them back, but not destroy them and now he keeps falling into Noctis’ memories forcing them both the recount them. He gripped Noctis closer, whispering urgently into his ear.  


‘Listen, Noct. I-I can’t fight these shadows. My power can only knock em back, if we’re gonna destroy them, you’ve gotta fight them.’  


Noctis pulled away from the embrace, his face wet with tears and snot.  


‘I- I don’t….’ he stammered.  


Gripping Noctis face in his hands Prompto pulled him close.  


‘You got this. If someone like me can fight their way through this place then you can! There’s a light in there somewhere, something they didn’t manage to kill.’  


Noctis blinked disbelieving.  


‘You didn’t actually want to die…did you?’  


Noctis’ heart stuttered in his chest. Did he want to die then? When he’d slammed the accelerator, he guessed, maybe he did…he doesn’t remember much he just _acted._ He'd just wanted to be free.  


But then on the bridge, before he fell…  


‘How?’ Noctis asked, ‘how did you do it?’  


Prompto faltered. How did he answer that? How did he explain in the scant time they had how he had taken everything he had suffered through and used it, moulded it into his strength?  


Prompto took a deep breath, ruminating on how best to answer, but then it was clear. He didn’t have to explain what he’d been through; though not the same Noctis had dealt with pain from the hands of others aswell, had tried to take his own life due to their interference and the pressures he’d felt. The answer was simple.

‘I said No.’

Noctis swallowed thickly. He said no? It was almost… _childish._ A stupid statement for something monumental that he felt like scoffing at the mere concept but…had he?  


Looking back Noctis actually thought about it. Had he ever said it? All those so called ‘lessons’ he’d been forced through, all those orders veiled as requests, veiled as threats; all those times the cane had thwacked across his back and his cage had been tightened.  


Noctis breathed out in a rush at the realisation. He hadn’t had he? He’d never said it out loud. His mind had screamed it. Screamed it in that club for every foreign hand that had touched him, every mouth that had claimed him. He had been screaming in his mind as his body just sat back at let everyone tell him who to be, how to act and where to stand.  


Despite his cries, he’d never managed to get that words past his lips. He’d never been able to utter such a simple syllable. He’d never been able to utter a single word of protest.  


So simple. But he’d never had someone just _tell him._  


That it was okay.  


That he could say it.  


‘Thanks, Prompto.’ Noctis smiled suddenly.  


‘Eh?’  


Noctis stood, Prompto hastily averting his eyes to the still very naked Prince of Insomnia, and Noctis turned to the shadows heading towards him. He smiled, touching his chest, feeling the beat of his own heart underneath. He was still alive. He was in a coma. But he wasn’t _dead._  


Not yet.  


Reaching up, Noctis gripped the crown which was wrapped around his skull and he said what he needed to say; _finally_.  


‘No.’  


He _pulled._  


The crown held stubborn beneath his grip, the pain tearing through his skull. Both hands gripped now as he tugged; determined.  


‘Prompto, help me!’  


Prompto hesitated only a moment before jumping up and wrapping his hands around the curled horn. His shield shuddered at the contact, but thankfully no memories breached and he pushed it out, the shadows falling apart at the contact.  


‘Pull!’  


A wretched cry was torn from Noctis as the crown ripped out of his skull with a sickening squelch before Noctis flung it across the room where it writhed, slapping against the tile.  


To Prompto’s horror the shadow made manifest slithered towards them, menacing in its intent, unwilling to let go of its source of strength. Emboldened, the other shadows pushed forward.  


But, Noctis knew now, he was stronger. Prompto had said he had a light within him, and he did. He had a powerful light gifted to him by his ancestors, taught to him by his Father and locked away from him as it was uncouth to reveal such power before those not from Insomnia.  


But that bitch won’t hold him back anymore.  


After so long not daring to reveal his power, he just prayed to the silent Astrals that the Crystal could even reach him here.  


And if it even recognised his authority over it after so long.  


Prompto focusing on the shadows didn’t see as Noctis stepped forward but he did see when Noctis’ power erupted from him.  


Prompto turned in awe.  


_Blue…_  


Crystal shards hovered in the air surrounding the Prince, the shadows which had slithered ever closer seemed to hesitate.  


_Let them come._  


Blue light scattered from him, surrounding him, attaching to the shadows where they burned and hissed, falling like ash to the floor.  


Noctis smiled. He’d forgotten how it felt, he’d genuinely forgotten how it felt to attach himself to his blood, his birthright, his power. How it felt to have that magic roar through his veins as he linked each part of himself to his ancestors’ bond. It was like home. Not home as the Citadel, a structure of glass and steel, but home which was the quiet thrum of his Father’s heart when Noctis had lay sleeping against his chest when he was young.  


An apology rang out in his heart to his line, ignored and forgotten as his life was destroyed. Pulling the light towards him, he remembered the taste of magic on his tongue, he remembered 10 years of age in a room with his Father, looking so much younger back then, as he revealed the secrets of the Lucis bloodline and the weapons bequeathed to them from their ancestors. He called on them then, feeling for the first time, for a long time, exactly who he was and who he was supposed to be.  


Noctis allowed the weapons to erupt from his soul and they circled him before spinning out cutting apart the shadows. Prompto stood in awe, eyes tracing the blue mist that surround Noctis, the fierceness of his power palpable in the air. It was amazing, terrifying…  


_He was beautiful._  


A slap of sound from behind Prompto had him move before he could think, wall pushing out as he span just as the tendril of crown snapped towards Noctis’ back.  


‘Noct, look out!’  


The tendril cracked against Prompto’s wall, golden light crackling against it as it was pushed back and Prompto cried out as another memory ripped through him of a splinted harness wrapped around Noctis, pulling his shoulders back and keeping his back straight under a crisp shirt as he sat at a birthday celebration, the bitch Crewcant stood smiling by his shoulder.  


Noctis speared the tendril before he could get lost in what had been his 10th birthday party and caught Prompto when he fell gasping, the tendril burning away around the silver blade.  


‘That was dumb.’ Noctis pointed out simply as his weapons continued to orbit him.  


‘This pleb’s....' Prompto breathed heavily, catching his breath, 'got your back.’  


Noctis snorted and Prompto smiled back, filled with the urge to make him laugh as often as possible.  


‘Dork.’ Noctis chuckled.  


‘Takes one to know one. I thought I told you that?’  


‘Well Wonderman,’ Noctis smoothly ignored, making Prompto chuckle again, ‘stay down for the moment, I’ve got this.’  


Noctis stood up, Prompto once more hastily averting his gaze, and turned pulling the weapons back to him, where they dispelled in a shower of crystalline sparks. Prompto looked around as he saw blue lights like tiny pinpricks, like stars fill the air around them, sparkling through the steam. Each light got brighter and brighter, Prompto’s eyes stinging from it but he refused to look away. Noctis sighed, throwing his arm out in an imperious gesture, before each light exploded out. Prompto lifted his arms up in surprise as the shadows around them were burned away in an instant.  


The sound of the shower echoed in the now empty room, the only other sound the two boys’ heavy breathing.  


Noctis chuckled, before outright laughing, staring at his hands in bewilderment.  


‘Prom..I…aha’  


Prompto stood up, smile twitching across his face.  


‘Yeah bro, you did.’  


Noctis’ smile was as blinding as his power as he turned to Prompto, he seemed to try and make some sentiment, to say something but eventually he just sighed, pulling Prompto to him.  


Still bewildered, Prompto automatically brought his arms up, returning the embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes Noctis is very much butt nekkid this entire chap. Enjoy that.


	7. Empire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I hate to see you leaving but I love to watch you go  
>  Keep staring at the ceiling when my world's about to blow  
> And I could chase the melody, but I let you down  
> I play the darkest symphony when you're around  
> Let the walls come down and face the fire  
> The end of my empire_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay with this as I have a few other projects going on atm! For those who have stuck with this I thank you so much!
> 
> Thank you for the kudos and the comments!  
> And seriously listen to this album it's awesome hehe ^.^

Ignis tapped away at his computer, his speed lesser than the raging fire that it was before. As he tapped away, trying to keep the organic code from going haywire, he found himself wondering whether or not he should just stop and allow the program to evolve. A few minutes prior had had the patient’s UI’s flicker with extremes, but the mapping was showing progress; incredible progress. Even if those extreme fluctuations were incredibly worrying the progress meant that in a few days, they might have saved the patients in record time.  


On the other hand, the program might turn into something unprecedented and he refuse to hang the lives of these two boys on whether this may or not this will work out for the better.  


So for now, he tapped away. For now, he’d ensure their safety and that they remain properly under his c- his car-e…  


‘Whoa, hey, hey!’  


Tapping at his face brought Ignis back into the room of blinking lights and rhythmic beeps.  


‘Gladio?’  


The worried frown softened into relief as Ignis blinked his eyes, finding himself half in Gladiolus’ lap and half on the floor, his chair having spiralled into the wall opposite. Calloused fingers swept Ignis’ hair away from his eyes before resting on Ignis’ forehead. Ignis could feel Gladiolus’ arm tighten around his back from where he had caught him and couldn’t help but muse at how wonderfully warm he was, so comfortable against his broad chest…  


_No, the program!_   


Ignis tried to shoot up but was pulled back down, Gladiolus hand pressing against his chest. His frown returned.  


‘You haven’t eaten again.’  


The statement was not a question and it brooked no argument; Ignis was far too preoccupied to care.  


‘The program. I can’t leave it unsupervised.’ He muttered, trying again to sit up despite the shivering that had erupted through his muscles.  


Gladiolus huffed, his anger seeping into the sound as he eased Ignis back down.  


‘I can keep an eye on the patients, Ignis, you’re dead on your feet. How long was your shift today?’  


‘Nothing I can’t handl-‘ Ignis started, only to be interrupted.  


‘You fainted, Iggy. You are staying there and I’m grabbing you something to eat. It’s either that or I’m grabbing a CalBag. Your blood sugar is low, you’re clammy and cold.’  


‘But-!’  


‘This isn’t a negotiation.’  


Gladiolus moved, picking Ignis up easily before propping him up against the wall, taking his white coat off to wrap it around the minutely shivering body before him.  


Ignis sighed, annoyingly glad for the gesture; the smell that clung to the jacket calming him, even through the stinging scent of antiseptic.  


‘I’ll be back in a few minutes, for the sake of your immediate health you are not to stand up, you hear me?’  


‘If that monitor goes off, you cannot stop me.’ Ignis threatened from the floor, eyes boring into Gladiolus’ own.  


Their silent battle held out for a tense few seconds before Gladiolus sighed, breaking away.  


‘I’ll be quick.’ He muttered, before striding out of the room. Gladiolus strode down the corridor before pressing the button to disengage the magnetic lock on the door. He’d get to the vending to grab one of those sandwiches and a sports drink and then he’d be back to Ignis in no time.  


He just hoped nothing happened while he was gone.  


  


  


^.^…………………………………….^.^  


  


  


Prompto pulled on the borrowed Crownsguard training gear with a strange feeling in his chest. He knew that one day, he would want to be here, in this locker room wearing these clothes; but doing it now in a dreamworld where he didn’t belong?  


It felt like… _cheating_. It made him feel ill.  


Holding in a sigh Prompto pulled the hoodie over his chest, pulling it past his abdomen.  


Well at least that was something at least, he thought having grown tired of his too small pyjamas leaving everything on show.  


_Speaking of being on show…_   


Prompto glanced over to where Noctis was changing, trying not to linger to long on the eyeful he got during the fight with in the shower, instead he watched Noctis who having pulled on some oddly sized black trousers was currently zipping them up, before his view glanced over the marred skin on the Prince’s back, anger flaring at the sight.  


He swallowed thickly before speaking, but the tremor in his voice still took a moment to shake out.  


‘T-Those scars,’ he gestured as Noctis looked over, hand gripping a black t-shirt. ‘They another lesson from that bitch?’  


Noctis sighed, his free hand absently touching the top of his shoulder as his eyes went distant.  


‘Yeah, kinda.’  


He went silent and Prompto really didn’t want to push him, he was about to open his mouth to say so when Noctis shook out his t-shirt and put it on.  


‘Before I figured out her bullshit,’ he said, pulling the shirt over his head, his hair sticking out at all angles as he did, ‘I used to take what she said on board. I believed her when she said that I was bad and I needed to be whipped into shape and become a "proper Prince".’ Noctis closed the locker door before sitting on the bench to put on his boots, his hair still damp and dripping. Prompto joined him to stamp into a pair of trainers he’d managed to find. ‘So when I was bad and she would tell me how disappointed in me she was, I use to ask, yeah I know,’ he interrupted before Prompto could react, ‘to be punished but she would always shake her head and walk away in silence.’  


Noctis stopped, boots laced, resting his arms against his thighs his head bowed.  


‘Noct…you don’t have to tell me if you don’t-‘Prompto started, but Noctis was shaking his head before Prompto finished.  


‘This place is all about healing, so…’ he left the thought unfinished before materialising a dagger out of the armiger, flipping it before dismissing it. Prompto had tried not to flinch, but yeah…magic weapons…  


Noctis was too glad for the reminder of his connection to notice.  


‘If she wouldn’t punish me, I’d do it myself. ‘  


Prompto’s eyes widened before flicking to the lean lines of Noctis’ back covered in black material.  


‘Before she impressed on me the folly of practicing for combat when I’ll never need it, I had access to wooden practice weapons…’  


Noctis shook his head again in exasperation of the foolishness of his younger self. He should have shoved that damn wooden polearm up her…  


Standing up to stop his viterol Noctis turned to Prompto, who was looking at him with a look he couldn’t quite place. He thought it was pity, but it was something else.  


_Like he knew._   


Prompto darted his eyes away, absently pulling the sleeves of his hoodie down, tugging them over his hands.  


‘Anyway, ‘Noctis breathed, turning away himself, ‘I beat the shit out of myself. Hence scars. End of story.’  


Looking around the room, Noctis felt a pang in his chest. _Astrals he had had some fun in here._  


Before Crewcant had taken him away from his practice to study, he had used to hang out in the lockers with his Father’s Glaive. Immigrants the lot of them, but it didn’t matter to the eleven year old prince, all he saw were good people who told him jokes and taught him words that made his Father choke on his wine at dinner; who taught him his first fighting stances and how to pull flame from stone.  


Then it was taken away, the villainy of those across the Wall too much for Crewcant’s twisted sensibilities. She took him away and locked him in a silent cage.  


‘Come on Prom…let’s get out of here.’  


Prompto stood up, feeling a touch warmer in his borrowed clothes, no matter how much they itched his body with how he didn’t feel _worthy_ of them.  


Even dreamscape ones.  


‘Where we going?’ he asked, to distract himself.  


Noctis shrugged.  


‘Anywhere but here’ he answered heading out, ‘because I don’t know about you…but _fuck_ this place.’  


They recoiled away from the wall next to them as a large crack splintered up the wall, with no further movement occurring they both relaxed by degrees.  


‘What was that about?’ Prompto asked, watching as Noctis carefully walked up to it fingers ghosting over the jagged edge. Noctis shook his head, his expression thoughtful as he turned away.  


‘Let’s get out of here.’ He muttered.  


Prompto nodded, following Noctis out. The walls tall around him, the paintings menacing and the natural shadows weighted with threat.  


Is this what Noctis had felt like? When he had walked these marble corridors had he felt eyes on him at all times as they felt now?  


Well, Prompto could relate to that. He could relate to the feeling that nowhere was safe. No matter where he went in Insomnia he would always fight the urge to look over his shoulder, expecting to see his Dad following him through the crowd, or see his Mother’s dead-eyed gaze from a shop window…  


  


_Clack._   


  


He froze.  


_No way…_   


  


_Clack, clack._   


  


Fear skittered up Prompto’s spine as the sound echoed across the marble. His skin turning cold in his hoodie. The mannequin, was it back? Was it still chasing him down even fro-  


The sudden rush of air past his side, startled Prompto out of his fear enough that he pushed his shield out as he turned to see Noctis, sword impaling the frozen limbed creature before seeing Noctis pull back as though burned, his sword shattering upon impact.  


‘Wha-…’ he breathed shakily, ‘what the f-fu…’  


Prompto ran forward, ignoring the flash of memory that ripped through him, catching Noctis before he hit the ground, heart in his throat at the violent shaking that had taken his friend. Looking at the still frozen creature he slammed out his shield with shout, the limbs of the mannequin shattering at the impact.  


Noctis looked up at Prompto in horror.  


What he’d _seen…_  


It seems like it works both ways. Before, when Prompto had fought against his shadows, Prompto had glimpsed into what each of them represented, both of them reliving the memories of what had happened. Now when Noctis had struck the fucking weird ass mannequin without a face, his sword had shattered and he had _seen._  


Prompto breathed heavily as the shield returned, humming against his skin in comfort, a balm to his frayed nerves. It had been a flash, a moment of a scene amongst many. He felt sick. The feeling of Noctis in his arms making his nausea rise like bile in his throat.  


Why did it have to be that one?  


Suddenly letting Noctis go, Prompto stood up and walked over to the black stone walls, breathing harshly as the world span about him.  


‘Pr-…’ Noctis tried, before he allowed himself to stop, his mind still racing, unbidden tears burning in his eyes.  


_How was he still alive?_   


Shaking himself, Noctis stood heading over to where Prompto swayed unsteadily against the wall.  


‘Prom…hey,’ Noctis tried carefully, to no response. Scratching at his neck, a bad habit he usually got told off for, he walked round Prompto, ducking to attempt eye-contact.  


‘Prompto.’  


Prompto shuddered, before looking at Noctis, his blue eyes wide. His mouth opened and closed uselessly before his shook his head violently, turning away.  


He threw up.  


_Shitshitshit…_   


‘Prom? Fuck..I… can I- Er?’ Noctis stuttered ineffectually before going _‘fuckit’_ and stepping forward, carefully placing his hand on Prompto’s back who flinched at the contact.  


‘I’m sorry…’ came the quiet reply.  


Noctis blinked.  


‘The hell you apologising for?’ Noctis’ anger flared, before he tampered it down. Prompto did not need someone shouting at him right now.  


‘You…shouldn’t need to see that.’ Prompto muttered, wiping his mouth with his sleeve before grimacing at it. ‘You’ve got enough to worry about…’  


‘Says the guy who took all of my shit like a champ.’ Noctis snorted.  


With no retort to that Prompto just shook, leaning heavily on his knees trying not to throw up again.  


Noctis rubbed his hand in calm strokes since Prompto didn’t pull away, but Noctis couldn’t help but berate himself for his short-sightedness.  


He was in here with someone. Prompto wasn’t just some magic code in the program come to befriend him, he wasn’t a professional in here to talk him through his problems. No.  


Prompto was just a kid like him. A broken kid with his own traumas.  


And Noctis hated that he’d been so focused on himself, he hadn’t even thought of that. Hadn’t even given it a thought as Prompto threw himself constantly in harm’s way in order to protect him.  


‘Hey, Prom…seriously, you told me I had to face all my shit to get out of here. I’m…’ _crap at this_ , ‘here, if you wanna talk…’  


He fell into silence again as Prompto stood up straight carefully, Noctis dropping his arm reluctantly.  


‘T-thanks bud, but I think I’ll leave it for now.’  


Noctis opened his mouth to argue but eventually nodded. He had no right to know what had happened and Prompto’s traumas were his alone to work through. He had even thought to argue whether Prompto even wanted to get back home (out of the program), but luckily saw the short sightedness of that statement in time before his dumb mouth could interfere.  


‘I’m here, just as you were for me. Right by your side, yeah?’  


Prompto looked startled for a moment before nodding. Noctis sighed as Prompto walked past him towards the Citadel entrance.  


Prompto looked severely unconvinced.  


_URGH Fuck all of this!_   


Noctis span round running to catch up with Prompto before stepping in front of him, halting his progress.  


‘Look, Prompto. We didn’t start off as the best of friends and what has kicked off the past few hours isn’t going to change that out of nowhere but we’ve been through some shit and we’re both stuck here until we figure it out. You’ve shouted at me, berated me and ripped me out of a corpse for Astrals’ sake! But you stood and took the hits for me, you’ve seen almost everything I have trapped in _here_ ,’ he pounded on his chest, ‘and still you stand by my side! I’ll stand by yours, no matter what your past was, no matter what your current life is, I’m there. No matter what.’  


Prompto’s mind raced, looking at Noctis’ faced which begged Prompto to believe everything he had said as truth, but how could he?  


How could Prompto believe any of what Noctis just said? Prompto was a nobody. A broken “adoption case gone wrong” commoner with no prospects or future outside trying not to die, which, well he almost failed at already.  


His dream of being a Crownsguard had been fully built on being able to be somewhere other than home for the duration of his training, not for any grand urges to be a defender of Insomnia or anything normal like that.  


So a terrible person on top of everything else.  


Prompto moved forward, trying to get past Noctis but instead Noctis just moved back in front of him.  


‘Dude, come on.’ Prompto sighed  


‘No.’  


‘Thought we were leaving?’  


‘Yeah, together.’  


‘But-…’  


‘No.’  


‘Fond of that word huh?’  


Nocts couldn’t help the smile that broke out across his face.  


‘About as much as you are.’  


Prompto remembered his own statement to Noctis before. I just said No. He huffed at the memory, unable to stop his own smile.  


Noctis thrust his hand out in front of him.  


‘Together?’  


Prompto didn’t know what made Noctis so certain about this, but Prompto just decided to relent, moving his hand to shake only for Noctis to pull it away at the last second.  


‘Only shake, if you’re certain. I’m serious, you’re stuck with me.’  


‘Worried I’ll divulge all your dirty secrets to the press?’  


‘You wouldn’t!’  


Prompto shrugged.  


‘Oh I dunno, all that yen could get me a nice apartment by the park ye know?’  


‘Fuck, I’ve got an apartment I don’t use, take that!’  


‘You bribing my friendship?’  


‘YOU ADMIT IT!’  


Prompto spluttered.  


‘Eh?!’  


‘That’s it! No backsies!’ Noctis laughed, turning away.  


‘I agreed to nothing.’  


‘We’re friends, HA! Now shake!’  


Prompto stared dumbfounded at this Noctis that he was suddenly faced with, all childish glee in his bright eyes, before laughing out loud himself.  


Two idiots laughing in the lobby of the Citadel made quite a sight. Prompto laughed, his face scrunched so he didn’t see Noctis stop, his face soft in awe at the beautiful blond in front of him. Noctis looked away, chuckling to himself, his chest light.  


_Shit, I think I’m starting to like this idiot…_   


Noctis tried not to think too hard on it. The thought surprisingly didn’t bring in a flood of disgust as his dalliances had before, it was like Prompto…the thought was just… _pure._  


_Did he even deserve to have it?_   


A soft hand with a firm grip, held Noctis’ right hand. Noctis blinked out of his thoughts, looking down in a strange disbelief as Prompto shookit carefully.  


A careful, quiet smile broke across Noctis’ face as he looked up at Prompto.  


‘Together?’ he whispered.  


Prompto’s eyes skittered across Noctis’ face, a slight blush colouring his cheeks before he looked away, nodding.  


‘Yeah, ever at your side.’  


Noctis’ smile broke out into an all-out grin.  


‘Awesome,’ Noctis turned to walk out of the Citadel, making the executive decision to not let go. Despite feeling like he was going to shake out of his skin, Prompto just held on tighter.  


They walked across the courtyard and out of the main gate, unhindered, facing the expanse of quiet Insomnian streets. Noctis huffed.  


‘The amount of times I’ve looked down that main street and wanted to run.’  


‘I’ve never been down this part of Insomnia until today. Wasn’t allowed.’  


Noctis looked over eyebrows raised, until the flash of memory he’d seen returned, striking his reply dumb. Exhaling, Noctis looked around before a realisation came to him. _The Crack_ …  


‘Hey, Prom…’ Noctis said, the sudden mischievous tone in his voice making Prompto match his gaze quizzically, ‘wanna do something really fucking fun?’  


‘Why do I have a bad feeling about this?’  


‘Cause it’s gonna be awesome.’ He smiled, before running off and pulling Prompto with him down the main street, holding his hand tight. ‘Right! This is our dreamworld, yeah?’ he waited for Prompto to nod, ‘so we can make this place whatever the hell we want!’  


‘What?’  


‘So, let’s do what we need to do. Let’s get out of here. Don’t know about you but I’m sick of Insomnia. So?’  


‘So?’  


Noctis stopped at the end of the street before turned back to the Citadel.  


‘Consider it the End of my Empire.’  


The ground beneath their feet shook before Noctis raised his arm, as imperious a gesture as the King he was portended to be. A ragged crack tore with violence in the ground before them, pushing away from them in stuttered advancement before gathering speed. Noctis whooped and Prompto looked on with awe.  


They could do what they wanted? They could make everything what they wanted it to be?  


Prompto’s thoughts filled with snow even as the crack raced to the Citadel.  


‘Let the Walls come DOWN!’  


The top of the Citadel shattered with a tumultuous groan, the buildings swaying as the multitude of glass cracked as the structure buckled. Noctis laughed before clenching his fist.  


‘The end of my Empire…’  


There was almost a pause, a breath of expectation that lingered in the air. Prompto holding tightly to Noctis’ hand as he saw the Citadel stop in its churning.  


Then a sound of tearing steel echoed through Insomnia as the towers fell.  


Layer by layer, floor by floor, the four towers fell across and over each other, the rubble crashing through the front gates, dust and smoke pluming into the sky.  


‘n-Noct…’ Prompto whispered, his heart hurting from what he was witnessing. The Citadel being a symbol of strength in the real was only a prison in their dream; Noctis was breaking free, with every shattered window, with every painting consumed by fire he was breaking free. Prompto found himself almost jealous, since Insomnia didn’t go as far as his hom-  


Their world…they can do what they want.  


If Prompto wanted Insomnia to reach his home, Prompto only had to will it to occur.  


He could break free too.


	8. Crystalline

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Now it's all out in the Open, was it worth it? Hell is broken out of me and I'm addicted to the lies_   
>  _Rivers gonna run and set us free, Love is gonna drown into the sea, Let Tomorrow Come don't cry for Me_   
>  _Crystalline, crystalline..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Folks, Toastie's back! Been busy lately getting involved in more projects but my dear boys keep calling me back so here I am :) Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Things that Make, Things that Break. The new chapter for that should be up by next week at the latest!
> 
> I'm so glad for the interest this weird little fic has gotten and I can't thank you all enough! If you enjoy it, please drop a kudos or a comment! 
> 
> Without further ado...Crystalline.

Gladiolus heard the sharp beeps from the control room as he made his way down the corridor, sandwiches and drinks stuff in his wide trouser pockets and they shook him into a run. Ignis was in no state to battle with that program and he didn’t have the expertise to wrestle it into normality.  


He went to scan his ID on muscle memory but found the door ajar. Busting in he found Ignis in hurried conversation with the damn Commisioner himself. _What in Ifrit’s name…_.  


‘Ignis, where do you need me?’ he called out, purposefully ignoring the Commisioner and deferring to Ignis’ authority in the situation.  


Ignis looked up from his conversation, throwing him a grateful look before replying, gesturing for one of the drinks, that Gladiolus tossed to him without pause.  


‘At Argentum’s module,’ he answered cracking open the bottle ‘cross-reference his vitals and ensure no fluctuations outside of accepted parameters.’ Ignis took a swig from the tart berry blue liquid before turning back to the invading party, ‘as you can see this is delicate work and can not be interrupted, Dr. Fleuret.’  


‘We are treating the Crowned Prince of this country and I discover through _hearsay_ that you have linked him with a traumatised commoner after sending away our vetted and authorised psychologist, that I may remind you, was _your_ decision that we bring in at great expense to the hospital.’ Dr. Fleuret replied following Ignis as he sat at Noctis’ module to check his vitals, eyebrows raising at the serotonin level increase and the healing factors that had begun to be listed.  


He was smart enough to click out of the codestream, instead bringing up a generic record of Prince Noctis’ details before answering.  


‘A psycohologist is necessary for this program to work, but the mistake was made in believing any of these people would be able to maintain their professionalism in the face of a celebrity which none of those candidates could!-‘  


‘The Citadel is breathing down our neck Scientia and are expecting results, his own aide has been calling incessantly and when she discovers you have placed him in a dreamscape with a _commoner!_ -‘  


‘You will tell her that his Highness is progressing well and his vitals are improving, anything further than that is protected throu-‘  


‘It is within her rights to know how he is being treated!’  


‘And we are within our rights to treat him to the best of our ability!’ Ignis stood angrily before he swayed alarmingly before steadying himself. He blinked hoping it hadn't gone noticed, Gladiolus' tensed jaw told him otherwise.  


‘His Highness is safe and is improving, as is the patient Argentum.’ Ignis muttered, before sitting down. ‘Trust us to do our job Ravus.’  


Dr. Fleuret scowled, looking between Ignis and Gladiolus before huffing and walking away. Gladiolus raised his eyebrows at Ignis but he simply shook his head.  


_‘Amicitia!’_   


Gladiolus flinched at the shout from the corridor before sighing, standing up and flinging Ignis a sandwich from his pocket, pointing at it imperiously with a glare before walking out where Ravus stood leaning against the wall.  


‘I gotta get back to my patient.’  


‘Ignis,’ Ravus started before standing up with a huff, ‘Dr. Scientia, how long has he been working?’  


Gladiolus tried to hide the surprise. Ravus never called anyone by their first name, considering it too familiar, he couldn’t help the possessive anger that came through at the statement.  


‘He’s working hard for his patient.’ Gladiolus answered tactically, noticing the twitch he received at the non-answer.  


Dr. Fleuret sighed, sticking his hands in his coat pocket before nodding.  


‘The board are getting agitated, His Highness’ aide is putting the pressure on.’ He paused, waiting for Gladiolus’ understanding nod. ‘Keep an eye on Ignis, Amicitia.’  


‘He’s in good hands with me.’ Gladiolus said back, the lick of jealousy coming through. ‘Don’t you worry about that.’  


Ravus nodding again, ignoring the posturing completely to Gladiolus’ chagrin, before turning and heading back down the corridor.  


Gladiolus exhaled, rubbing his eyes. If he was getting riled up so easily then he really was getting tired but damn if he got annoyed by Dr. Fleuret and his attention on Ignis.  


Ignis and Gladiolus had tried to keep their relationship secret, and it had taken all of Gladiolus' strength not to react when he had seen Ravus touch Ignis on the shoulder a few seconds longer than was strictly professional.  


The smack he’d have gotten for full tilt snogging Ignis in the cafeteria in retaliation would have been worth it.  


The week of begging for forgiveness that came afterwards however, wouldn't.  


Pulling himself out of the possibility, Gladiolus headed back into the room, seeing Ignis back at the monitor made him frown but seeing half the sandwich and the drink already gone made him feel a touch better.  


‘So what kicked off?’ he said in lieu of greeting as he grabbed his discarded white coat, putting it back around Ignis' shoulders before sitting down and opening Argentum’s mindscape, eyebrows raising at the increase in activity.  


‘The code went haywire again, worse than it had been. I feared the worst but the activity in the mindscape is opening up beyond our projections, however the viewer is complete static so whatever is going on, we can’t see it.’  


Gladiolus was quiet for a while, writing down Argentum’s statistics and comparing them against the earlier values on his chart.  


‘Hey Iggy,’ he got a ‘hmm’ as a response, ‘Look at your chart, what are your projections of His Highness waking up?’  


Ignis blinked, looking up at Gladiolus as though he had gained two heads and were discussing favourite ice creams ( a ludicrous point since it was impossible for Gladio to have sprouted a full functioning head in under two minutes and even MORE impossible to think Gladio would even consider something like ice cream to eat) before his mind clicked at what Gladiolus was pointedly asking.  


Startling, he quickly looked at his charts, realising he had been neglecting them in favour of code wrangling, but now he clicked onto His Highness’ Charts on his other monitor before mechanically filling in the numbers he found on the clipboarded paper before him, lifting to the copy underneath, holding the paper by the pen as his other hand scrolled through the data. Finished, he placed the pen down before scanning the written figures, his eyes widening with each pass.  


Gladiolus smirked smugly as Ignis looked up at him in surprise.  


‘I might be wrong…’  


‘You never are.’ Gladiolus interrupted, to a sleepy smile from Ignis.  


‘But,’ he answered pointedly, softened by a sigh, ‘I think our boys may be awakening soon.’  


‘Our boys huh?’  


‘Well I daresay we seem the only two to care.’ Ignis sighed looked pointedly at the small blond hair stick thin boy next to the Prince.  


‘Princesses’ aide seems pretty caring.’ Gladiolus huffed.  


‘She’s not.’  


Gladiolus blinked at the unexpected venom in Ignis’ voice, he studied Ignis face as the man in question looked between his two patients.  


‘I spoke to her, as I was setting up His Highness into the ‘scapes.’ He answered Gladiolus unasked question, sitting himself up and affixing his glasses.  


‘And?’  


‘And I daresay I don’t care for her. Her dotage on the boy seems…’  


‘Overbearing?’ Gladiolus prompted.  


_‘Unhealthy.’_ Ignis answered.  


‘Oh…’  


Ignis scanned the images before him, before looking back at the two boys before him.  


‘I- Astrals – Gladiolus, I want to do right by them, by them both. One, if I am right, has been smothered all his life, to the point of...did you read the report?’  


Gladiolus shook his head.  


‘It states that the truck driver swerved into incoming traffic and hit his Highness’ car, Gladio if that’s true the man will be executed for attempted assassination.’  


‘It was an assassination attempt?’  


Ignis shook his head.  


‘I was checking the news reports when it first happened. People were saying how his Highness’ car swerved into the truck, but then when the news hit the lunchtime run, the stories had changed.’  


‘His Highness was the one who hit…’  


Ignis nodded, unsure of how else to see what he knew it was he saw. Turning back to the monitors as Gladiolus turned to the two patients, shaking his head.  


‘So our Highness tries to commit suicide…’ Gladiolus breathed.  


‘And your patient was nearly murdered.’  


Ignis heard the cracking of Gladiolus knuckles without taking his eyes of the scrolling code, frowning at the new reams that he saw there.  


‘Heard anything from the parents?’ Ignis tried.  


The silence that came afterwards was deafening in its meaning and Ignis sighed; hard.  


‘At what point do we stop caring, Gladio? When they are awake, when they can walk? When they leave hospital grounds?’  


‘Iggy…’ Gladiolus sighed, heavily, ‘where are you going with this?’  


Ignis looked back at his monitors before looking at the paperwork, frowning hard.  


‘I…’ Ignis swallowed hard, ‘…nevermind. We are here now, so let’s help where we can.’  


Gladiolus looked at Ignis for a while longer before going back to his screens, typing away ineffectively hoping that nothing else interrupts the night.  


He looks at his sandwich, aware that he’s suddenly lost his damn appetite.  


  


  


…….  


  


  


Prompto watched as Noctis walked towards the ashen ruin of the Citadel. Rubble clacking down to rest, the dust rising up slowly with the last purple highlights of the twilight tinted the sky. He stepped forward with him, their hands still clasped together. As the last of the rubble settled down, silence enveloped them, but Prompto didn’t dare interrupt as Noctis stared at the destruction he had wrought. This was for Noctis to work through, and anyway; Prompto’s mind was locked on his own home, so many miles from here.  


‘I….’  


Prompto looked up at the utterance, thinking he had imagined it, but no, Noctis’ mouth was stammering, trying to find the words that just wouldn’t come. Prompto felt his heart crush at the look on Noctis’ face as he turned to the rubble. Yeah, no.  


This wasn’t a victory.  


This was _vengeance_.  


And Noctis was realising that it fixed _nothing._  


‘Fuck…. _Yes_.’  


Prompto blinked. _Orrrrrr maybe not?_  


‘I did it. It….it’s actually down, its gone!’ he laughed, a tinge of hysteria turning the laugh into something far more dangerous.  


‘Noct…’Prompto tried, but Noctis was already moving a wild gleam racing through his eyes.  


‘No more lessons, no more watching and laughing, no more whispers and sniggers’ his words built, step by step, volume increasing till the words were tearing out of him, ‘no more of the hurt, no more of not being good enough! No more of that bitch! How do you like me now?!’ he let go of Prompto’s hand tearing down the road grabbing rock after rock of rubble, flinging it out to the pile of destruction before him. ‘How!’ he shouted ‘Do! You! Like! Me! NOW?! Your PRECIOUS PRINCE!’  


‘Noct! _Noct!_ ’  


Prompto wrapped his arms around Noctis’ shoulders, pulling him close. Noctis wrestled with him, his cries echoing out into the empty street, but Prompto pulled him down, gripping him tightly.  


‘Noct! Noct it’s okay it’s okay, breathe!’  


But he couldn’t. Years of hell were tumbling out of him and he couldn’t stop the torrent. Didn’t want to stop it as he screamed into Prompto’s shoulder, his throat ripping as his cries strangled him, hot tears running down his face. Amongst his breakdown Prompto held Noctis close, his own tears falling quietly down his face as he waited for Noctis’ break to subside.  


And slowly, ever so slowly, it did. Muscles shaking violently slowly fell into shudders as Noctis’ cries turned to snuffles and eventually he sat up, hurriedly wiping at his face as if he hadn’t spent the past ten minutes bawling into Prompto’s chest.  


‘I- I’m…’ Noctis choked, sniffing and trying to get some semblance of control back to himself.  


‘Next word better not be sorry, Noct.’ Prompto said, without venom.  


Wide blue eyes rimmed with red; puffy from tears and rubbing met calm eyes the colour of a sunny sky even as the one above them began to darken with the encroaching night.  


Noctis stammered but seemed to think better of whatever it was he was going to say and instead nodded with a sigh.  


He felt like he could sleep for a year; everything hurt so much. But, he thought as he moved to stand with Prompto’s help, he felt lighter. He turned to the rubble one more time realising it wasn’t the destruction that did it, it was finally just…  


Letting it go.  


He was still the Prince in the real world, the one people had been working for so long to return him to and he knew that the Citadel and all the responsibilities it held would still be there when he got back. But he was a Prince so surely that meant he had some level of authority.  


He’d have to earn it, rebuild a tarnished reputation from the ground up, but with Prompto by his side, holding tightly onto his hand as he currently was, he felt like he could take on the world.  


As soon as he woke up, someone was getting fired.  


Resolve crystallising within his heart, Noctis shuddered out a breath, the tension bleeding completely from his body. Yeah. He had a lot of work to do.  


Prompto looked at the pile of rubble and then appraised the fine sharp features of the man next to him. Noct looked so much younger than he had appeared before, like all the shadows that had held him down were finally…gone. As though the night’s fall had finally allowed Noctis to _shine_.  


Prompto couldn't help but think of his own home. Everything that still held him down, tied to that cardboard box of sickened smiles and false promises, haunting him wherever he went. Squeezing Noctis’ hand, Prompto turned away from the destruction, tugging Noctis along and Noctis followed without a word simply squeezing Prompto’s hand in solidarity as they walked away.  


Prompto’s mind raced as he wondered whether or not he should go alone, not wanting Noctis to see what might be waiting for him there, but as Noctis matched his stride Prompto cast away his hesitance.  


He wanted Noctis with him.  


He was tired of being _alone._  


He was the Wonderman who had stormed the Citadel to save his friend, had battered shadows against his sunlit shield and pulled a Prince from his past horrors and now…  


Now he was a young, underweight boy heading willingly into his nightmares but despite feeling like that, he had a spark of hope, and that was keeping up with his steps beside him. A beautiful young man who had unexpectedly brought feelings he’d long ago discarded as nothing to do with him back to his heart.  


Prompto refused to consider what waking up would mean, whether he would go back to his fears or find his strength to walk away but no matter what it brought him, he prayed even as he tightened his grip:  


_Please, let him stay by side._


	9. Black Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompto faces his own demons and Noctis discovers some truths
> 
>  
> 
> _Battles and pains  
>  I've got my sadness in chains  
> Bear with me, faith  
> Hold on before it's too late  
> I don't need a reason  
> I just want to feel something  
> You know that you can hurt me  
> Everytime I let you in  
> So come around and save tonight  
> 'Cause you and me are lost for life  
> Black days, black days_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey folks...
> 
> Its been a while, but I had this chapter planned pretty much from the beginning and I didn't have the emotional fortitude to write it. This was a tough one. 
> 
> So, let me know what you think and know the next in the album is much _much_ happier.
> 
> Stay safe everyone. Remember you are loved and are worth everything.
> 
> Stay strong.

They walked for what felt like, an incredibly long time. They didn’t speak as they made their way through the empty streets of Insomnia, didn’t allow a single utterance between them as they navigated past the park they had first met, nor when they climbed their way past shops and large buildings that eventually became smaller, residential places.  


Noctis looked on from time to time, hand still clasped tight around Prompto’s, to make sure Prompto was okay and had opened his mouth a few times before thinking better of it. Prompto’s face was tight and determined, a storm held within his eyes, fading into dark violet like the sky above them. He never wanted to stop looking into those eyes, but hoped if he was given the gift to do so, he could get some of that shine back into them.  


_The light that had shone in the sunlight._   


Pulling himself out of his thoughts, feeling a bit bad for staring, Noctis looked back in front of him, only to gasp at the sight.  


Static. A wall of static where the city just…stopped.  


‘Astrals.’ Noctis breathed in awe, ‘How?’  


‘You’ve never been around here have you?’ Prompto asked, eyes scanning the wall as Noctis turned to him, frowning.  


‘I mean, no I guess not? I went to the park as a kid but round here? I don’t…’  


Then Noctis eyes spotted a building across the road. A walk-in clinic. He had been there when his Dad had opened it, he had been …what 6?  


Apparently his mind had remembered it, enough to construct this place. But further than that…  


Noctis looked again at the wall.  


‘This is built from my memories…we went into my mind.’  


Prompto nodded.  


‘But,’ he breathed, ‘you said we could build whatever we wanted, that this was _our_ world. I think…if your mind is willing, I could bring part of myself here.’  


‘How much?’ Noctis asked, his mind trying to catch up.  


‘Just enough….’ he whispered.  


Prompto walked up to the static, raising his hand towards it, pausing before making contact.  


‘I-I don’t know what’s going to happen…’  


Noctis squeezed Prompto’s hand before stepping next to him.  


‘Do what you gotta do, Prom. I ain’t going anywhere.’  


‘What if I hurt you?’  


‘Then it’ll hurt,’ Noctis answered simply, finally making eye contact, ‘you know I’ve handled worse.’  


‘Doesn’t mean I want to add to that…’ Prom replied, hesitantly.  


‘Prom…’  


‘No, ‘Prom exhaled shakily, turning back to the wall with a frown. ‘I’m sorry. I’m just stalling.’  


Noctis recalled what he had seen; those images that had crashed through his mind when his sword had crushed that mannequin. They would haunt him for the rest of his life and to think there was more…it crushed his heart that someone so, _damn perfect_ was hurt so badly by people who should have protected him.  


_ A dark closed off space, stuck with rot and filth, trapped, alone and running out of breath… _   


Noctis swallowed hard against the memory, squeezing Prompto’s hand again.  


Prompto looked at him in confusion.  


‘You okay there, buddy?’ he smiled, nervously, forcing Noctis to steel himself and look into those eyes looking so damn _scared_ despite his smile.  


‘Not about me, Prom, this is all you.’ Noctis answered, as Prompto blinked in confusion, his smile faltering even as Noctis continued. ‘If you’re okay to do this, I’m here. If you’re not, I’m still here.’ He smiled even as Prompto looked away, the tears in his eyes not being hidden from anyone. ‘If you’re ready; I am too.’  


Prompto looked at Noctis in disbelief. _Have I ever heard those words?_ He thought to himself, eyes searching Noctis’ face, trying to find the lie, trying to hunt out the lines of held back laughter around the eyes, the twitch of a smirk around the lips, the shadows across the eyes that showed a hidden intent, a loss of rational thought; to no avail.  


Noctis was accepting the searching in what seemed to be infinite patience, allowing Prompto to take all the time he needed and Prompto was grateful. As the time continued, Prompto felt his heart break a little bit more each time.  


What on Eos did he do to deserve this? In what world does he get to stand here with someone he could tentatively call…a- a friend? Who stands with him, holding his hand without fear or malice or spite…  


Prompto inhaled around the lump in his throat, causing Noctis to tut at him before pulling him into a tight embrace, one Prompto gladly returned with a shuddering sob.  


‘No matter what you have to get out and deal with, do it.’ Noctis said, quietly before pulling back forcing Prompto to look at him, his sobs hiccupping through him. ‘I’ll take anything you need to throw at me, I’ll take it and I’ll still be here after…’ he trailed off awkwardly, ‘if um…you want…if you want me to be?’  


‘Don’t go…’ came the almost whimpered reply and Noctis felt the odd lump in his chest twist and surge as he pulled the thin man into his arms once more.  


‘I swear, Prom.’ Ignoring his own shaking to push every ounce of strength he had in him, begging for Prompto to understand, to know, ‘No matter what I see, no matter what dragons lurk in your dreams, we’ll fight them and I’ll be right by your side, I swear.’ He said fiercely, tightening his grip, Prompto nodding despite himself, accepting Noctis’ words even as his mind tried to find all the reasons to not agree.  


‘Hold on tight then Noct.’ Prompto whispered, even as he turned towards the wall. His heart lurching as his memories came flooding back into his mind, everything he had locked away, everything he had told himself to hide away and keep buried. In a flood it swept through him, making him stagger, gasping at the force.  


‘Prom?’  


Prompto shook his head at the unspoken question before raising his hand towards the static. Opening his eyes, Prompto pressed his arm into the void, electricity of sound skittering under his skin.  


‘Take me home.’  


  


………….  


  


…………..  


  


Gladiolus was scribbling in Argentum’s vitals when a sharp beep caused him to look up in alarm. Clicking through the various tabs on his monitor, he brought up Argentum’s Mindscape. All through his mind, bright spots were sparkling through the previously voided areas, like stars in a night sky the boy’s mind was waking up.  


However this led to something horrifying in its clarity.  


Ignis brought his chair across to view the monitor over Gladiolus’ shoulder. Ignis' exhale of anger shuddered through Gladiolus and his knuckles tightened in response.  


Scars. _Hundreds_ of them.  


Each tiny lay line lighting up on the monitor, testament to a trauma the boy’s mind had suffered and he was turning each one on like a beacon.  


_‘Look at me’_ it seemed to declare, _‘see what they’ve done.’_  


Gladiolus felt bile rise in his throat, adrenaline pushing through his veins as his anger mounted, eyes scouting each and every line.  


‘May his parents never find their way into this hospital,’ muttered Ignis, his voice cold. ‘Lest I cut each and every one of those scars into their own skin.’  


Gladiolus growled his agreement before exhaling heavily, defeated.  


‘There’s little to nothing we could do if they did Iggy.’  


Ignis moved back to his own monitor, seeing the stars of the Prince’s mind shine, his own scars not so noticeable but still there. Frowning he typed away.  


‘Leave that to me.’  


  


………

  


Noctis held fast to Prompto’s hand as they stepped through the static, leaving the view of Insomnia behind them as they were enveloped in white. The landscape stretched on seemingly forever and Noctis looked around in mute despair. Was this what it meant to be lost?  


He gripped Prompto tighter as they walked forward, his stomach prickling with unease as they moved forward. The static hummed around them, filling his ears till he couldn’t help but wiggle his finger into the lobe. It was an un-tuned radio, where he was having trouble finding the stations…  


_‘oi….yo-…-uckin’…’_   


Spinning behind him in panic, Noctis saw nothing to explain the echoed shout that had swept past him.  


‘what the fu-‘  


_‘Ge-…-back ere! So-….a bitc-…!’_   


Spinning back, Noctis still saw nothing around him until his eyes landed on Prompto looking at him, his face twisted in grief.  


‘You don’t have to, Noct’ he shakily said, ‘I can go alone.’  


The realisation punched Noctis in the gut. He was hearing parts of Prompto; those memories were coming for them, forcing their way forward and they were stood in the path of the tide.  


Steeling himself he forced down his panic as the voices increased in volume and number, each piece of static turning into a voice scathing and fierce; mocking and cruel.  


Prompto lived with this in him, and they hadn’t even gotten to his house yet.  


‘I’m here, Prom. I’m not leaving.’  


Nodding once, Prompto kept moving forward even as the volume increased further.  


It was like drowning.  


He couldn’t think outside of the noise, he couldn’t see for the white space around him, it was suffocating him from the inside out with only Prompto’s hand as his anchor.  


And suddenly, it was gone.  


Noctis’ legs shook violently and he hit the concrete beneath him hard, his hand not letting go even as he gulped in lungfuls of air and his ears rang now with nothing but silence.  


Prompto looked around as he allowed Noctis to recover. He wasn’t unaffected by the torrent they had to walk through, he was just used to it.  


Every single one of his nightmares were pretty much the same after all.  


They were standing at the corner of his house, the entrance open and the door off of its hinges as he knew it was from the last time he’d seen it.  


He knew because he was the one who went through it. The door and the face of his dad the last things he saw before darkness took him.  


_Clack…_   


Prompto felt Noctis flinch at the sound before standing up hurriedly. His friend’s fear was palpable and yet…  


Prompto felt nothing.  


This was his home. This was his nightmare, where he had been beaten and broken, destroyed inside and out and left to die.  


He’d spent the entire time in Insomnia running from the fear of returning, building a literal shield against his skin the colour of sunshine so he wouldn’t be touched again but now he was here...  


Prompto felt _nothing._  


_Clack._   


The sounds of mannequins echoed out across the silent street as Noctis eyes moved from window to door trying to find the source. Prompto on the other hand, looked up and stared at his open bedroom window, the mannequin blankly frozen in place, looking directly at them.  


‘YoU’rE Home…’ the wind whispered as it whipped around them, Noctis gulping audibly as goosebumps rippled through him, his neck prickling as his eyes finally followed Prompto’s line of sight, locking onto the silent sentinel.  


Noctis didn’t like this one jot. This wasn’t a home.  
His home had been a cage, a place that made him scared of his own shadow, dark and foreboding. This was completely different.  


Nothing was hidden here. Everything was on display…like a shop window. Looking around Noctis saw it for what it was.  


Prompto had grown up in fear. This was his _life._  


His hurts weren’t hidden behind closed doors, they weren’t hidden from the world in the shadows…  


The hand not holding Prompto’s clenched into a fist as he noticed the other frozen statues around the neighbourhood, turned away from the house and pointedly looking away.  


The whole street must have known what Prompto had gone through, but they had done nothing.  


They had done _nothing._  


Every single day Prompto had lived had been a Black day in the brightest of sunlight. On display and ignored by everyone walking down the street.  


Noctis looked at Prompto, whose eyes were still fixed on the window, in awe. Prompto Argentum was the bravest person he had ever met and if he ever got Prompto’s permission…  


He was gonna hunt his so called parents down himself with the entire force of the Citadel’s authority.  


If he didn’t run them through with his blade first.  


Startled out of his spiralling thoughts, Noctis jogged forward to catch up with Prompto who had let go of Noctis' hand and moved towards the house.  


Noctis eyes widened as more and more statues made themselves known, simple wooden dolls in positions; snapshots of horror.  


Prompto stepped over the one on the floor, sprawled across the threshold, neck snapped back and limbs splayed, deftly stepping around the one standing before it, fists clenched and arms up. Noctis heard a familiar scream go past him and for a stomach churning moment saw a shade of Prompto in those damn pyjamas cry out as he was flung into the door, it swinging open as he hit the ground, _hard._  


He blinked, the mannequins silent once more. Warmth fell down his cheek as he took in the rest of the open corridor, Prompto moving between them towards the stairs.  


He saw another gripping at the stair’s bannister as the larger’s leg kicked out towards it. Moving to follow Prompto he stepped onto the first stair only to jump back with a yell as the shade of Prompto hurtled down the stairs, shouting in pain, his wrist at an unnatural angle, only for Noctis to look back up and see the mannequins silently holding their vigil once more.  


Shaking Noctis looked up to see Prompto on top of the stairs, his face impossibly sad.  


‘Sorry you have to see this, Noct…’ he smiled shakily before walking further into the house. Noctis wiped at his eyes furiously, his chest shaking violently.  


Fuck legal. He was smashing their faces in. When he was back in Insomnia, there’ll be nowhere for them to run.  


_Fuck…_   


Heading up the stairs taking two at a time he passed numerous others, realising he had let Prompto out of his sight.  


Mannequins in grotesque pantomime of violence and pain littered the open rooms. Doors stained and broken, unpolished wooden floors cracked and torn Noctis took in them all his heart breaking with each sight. Before he could shout out for Prompto, Noctis stopped.  


Ice swept through him as his eyes alighted on a small cupboard between a bedroom and the bathroom. He’d seen this place, he knew what would be in there. He felt he shouldn’t, he couldn’t, he shouldn’t, he-  


Stepping forward he wrenched the door open, breaking the lock which pinned it to the wall and he felt himself shatter.  


A young boy, no older than 8 sat in the corner of the cupboard, bare and shaking. Bruises littered his body as he cried quietly in the dark.  


It was the memory he had seen, the one that had flashed through his mind when he struck the mannequin in the Citadel.  


Noctis flinched as the door was slowly closed, the image of the boy gone, a small wooden doll holding its place as the door creaked shut.  


‘Prom…’  


Prompto had changed clothes, gone was the Crownsguard training gear, in its place a red tank top and sleeveless black jacket, boots and grey trousers.  


‘I-…’ Noctis faltered, what could he say? Where could he even begin with… _any of this?_  


But Prompto just looked at him with that small sad smile before looking around the house again. Without saying a word he made his way back down the stairs, past the statues of his memories and back out of the front door.  


He had expected to feel something, _anything_ but now he was here seeing everything that had happened, he didn’t have anything left. He was a tank running on empty.  


He had shed enough tears.  


Noctis followed Prompto out to the street, looking back at the house even as Prompto resolutely turned away, making his way down the road before stopping.  


Noctis opened his mouth about to say something but Prompto beat him to it.  


‘Burn it to the ground.’  


Confusion pulled Noctis’ features for only a split second before he jumped back at the flames that had suddenly lit the path Prompto had just walked. Shaking, he watched it burn on the ground before Prompto’s fists clenched, his eyes screwed tightly.  


The flames undulated as though whipped by a wind before it screeched down the path, through the gate into the open front door, and further in, the house roaring into a conflagration before Noctis could even breathe.  


Without looking back once, Prompto continued walking.  


Noctis had brought down his prison with a scream, but Prompto burned his to the ground with a whisper.  


As the site of Prompto's horror filled past was reduced to ashes, Noctis caught up to Prompto, grabbing his hand. Prompto unclenched his fist and gripped on to Noctis hard as they walked away from the burning street, back into a landscape of white.

**Author's Note:**

> Just an idea so I might carry it on...dunno...kinda cruising at the moment.


End file.
